Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Idiocy

I was going to rant all over my blog today about the bloody ICC’s idiotic decision to demand that youtube take down all footage from the World Cup. But then I found this excellent rant that says everything I want to say. Here’s a taste of Andrew Miller’s wrath:

Only three days ago it was suggested on this website that the events of the past week might serve as a wake-up call for cricket’s fiscally obsessed powerbrokers. Fat chance. A game run increasingly by lawyers for lawyers, has deemed it necessary to go to war on the very online enthusiasts who can spread the word of a game whose reputation has been dragged through the mincer.

It is an astoundingly short-sighted decision by a ruling body that has once again shown it is completely lacking in a sense of priorities. God knows that cricket could do with some good publicity at present. Only 24 hours ago, the ICC’s Lawyer-in-Chief, Malcolm Speed, was telling Cricinfo how wonderful the match between Australia and South Africa at St Kitts was turning out to be. “Let’s all just watch the cricket,” he suggested when queried about the latest murmurings about Bob Woolmer’s death. Mal, we’d love to. But 75% of your global audience have no means of tuning in.

Yes, that’s right the ICC is so money-grubbing that they sold off the TV rights to cable channels which the majority of cricket lovers in the UK and Australia can’t afford. Cable in those countries is crazy overpriced and—other than covering the cricket—crap. Trust me, I pony up the dosh specifically to watch the cricket. And the cricket is the beginning and the end of what’s good on cable. For most cricket fans youtube is the only way to catch glimpses—and it is only glimpses—of the World Cup.

When will all those moronic beaurocrats wake the hell up? I am so sick of copyright insanity. Colour me extremely bloody ropeable.

Posted by Justine at 9:15, 28 March 2007 under Cricket, Ranting, Sport | 9 Comments »

Comments

  1. John H Says:

    I would agree with you if they weren’t providing those videos themselves. I don’t believe it’s free, but I wouldn’t expect it to be—just as I wouldn’t expect to be given free access to the match if I went there in person.

    March 28th, 2007 at 11:06 am

  2. Rebecca Says:

    wells, in u.s. land, we get tons of free sports. you can access certain channels for free if you have an antenna, and they broadcast a lot of local sports, plus some others. the spanish channels show a lot of soccer, and we can get basketball, baseball, golf, football, and probably more. anyone with a tv can watch the superbowl. same for nba finals. we also get the olympics. i’m pretty sure we got at least certain games of the soccer world cup on local channels. of course, we only get the stuff these channels choose to cover. but it’s still way more than any ten minute youtube video, and it’s all free.

    March 28th, 2007 at 12:10 pm

  3. lili Says:

    most of the sport is free-to-air in australia, but this year the world cup is only being shown once a week, at some ridiculous hour of the night.

    justine, you are so right about pay-tv here. when i was in london last year, i was all ‘it does WHAT?’ ‘it has how many channels?’ ‘what does this red button do?’

    here it’s just the shopping channel, and millions and millions of seinfeld reruns and episodes of antiques roadshow. (and sport.) most aussies save their $100 a month (for only 30 channels), and just buy what they want to watch on dvd from the US.

    March 28th, 2007 at 5:25 pm

  4. 4. Justine Says:

    And UK cable sucks compared to US cable. It’s all about population base. They are many and we are few.

    March 28th, 2007 at 5:33 pm

  5. John H Says:

    Have you looked at selectv?

    March 28th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

  6. jonathan Says:

    the super eight games, semi-finals, and final – at least any of those with australia playing in them – are being shown live on free-to-air tv in australia. and it starts at about 9.30pm, which is reasonable.

    March 28th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

  7. 7. Justine Says:

    Yeah, but that means you didn’t get to watch Malinga snag four wickets in a row against South Africa and almost put the kybosh on what was going to be an easy win. It’s nice to be able to watch our boys but all the interesting matches so far have not involved them.

    March 28th, 2007 at 6:20 pm

  8. Rebecca Says:

    that happens here too, with the olympics (and i’m sure other stuff as well). try watching an event or a sport if it doesn’t feature the u.s., and you’re pretty much out of luck. even some of the usian sports don’t get coverage. my friend is an olympic archer, but we won’t be able to watch her compete in beijing, because they just don’t cover archery.

    heh. i thought cable here was overpriced. when i was in eighth grade, my mom got fed up and cut off the cable. i cried. television used to be the center of my life. :P

    March 28th, 2007 at 9:18 pm

  9. Ben Payne Says:

    I agree with Miller, i think it’s utter stupidity that, with the World Cup fast becoming the height of cricketing achievement, so little is being done to promote it.

    It’s sad that since Cable tv arrived, the most exciting cricket has not been available…. most of the best series Australia has been involved in in the last ten years have been outside Australia (where we tend to boringly thrash everyone)… and as you say, the most interesting World Cup matches haven’t involved Australia….

    I believe in the future administrators will look back and see it as a time when they pretty much threw away potential future fans…

    March 29th, 2007 at 5:26 am

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