Friday, February 01, 2008

A less than sanguine scenario for Australian cricket?

In today's Crikey Charles Happell has a piece: "Rugby woes offer a timely warning for Cricket Australia".

The rugby he's referring to is Rugby Union, whose CEO recently admitted that the sport was losing money at a rapid rate of knots. How does this affect cricket or, to be more precise, Cricket Australia?

Happell draws three parallels between the sports

Like rugby, cricket is played well by six or eight nations. It is no soccer or basketball...

Like rugby, which is now essentially run by England and France, cricket’s powerbase has shifted dramatically in the past decade.... to the sub-continent, that is to say India. ... As anyone who has witnessed India flex its newfound muscle over the Harbhajan Singh affair will appreciate...

And, like rugby, cricket’s national team must remain competitive. If not, that’s the start of the slippery slope to oblivion.

While there's little sign that Australia's cricket will cease to be competitive in the next 3-5 years (dominant is another matter), what about beyond then? Will we look back upon the run of 16 Test victories which India arrested in Perth as the last golden age of Australian cricket?

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