Thought of the Day: Cricket Australia hates New South Wales?

Cricket Australia (CA) made a big change this week, dropping its confusing system for contracting national players for a more baffling one.

The old system provided 25 of the best players in the country with financial assurance to enable them to focus on throwing, catching, bowling and hitting cricket balls.  Seemed fairly simple, but the players selected and the contracts given were not always so simple.

The new system allows for less contracts, only 17 now, and has an even more confusing process for allocation; the vast majority of players with national contracts now are bowlers.

While this has been a positive for South Australia and Queensland, who have gained players that lost their national contracts and have gone in search of more lucrative state contracts, the way in which these contracts reconcile to selection is still a mystery.

For example, Mitchell Johnson (last seen advertising underwear, or chicken, or both), has retained his contract though hasn't played anything close to Test cricket for over 18 months.

Further, Steven Smith (who has never looked like a cricketer), lost his contract though was selected for Australia's One Day match against England last night. Making this more confusing was that he was selected seemingly as a batsman, as he wasn't called into bowl, and this was a game in which the Australian bowlers needed greater support (only taking 5 wickets).

There are many more examples of this, which has made me consider who has benefited from this system most and least.  The players don't seem to have benefited, as there is now less structure and certainty, though many of the states now have due to the Diaspora.  The one state that has suffered the most though, is New South Wales, with Phil Hughes and Usman Khawaja both leaving the state for better deals.

After decades of support from CA, has NSW now fallen out of favour?  Is this just a means of encouraging interest in the Sheffield Shield again, or is something more personal at play?

Question of the Day: Whatever happened to Theo from Die Hard?

Watching Die Hard for the umpteenth time the other night, I suddenly realised that not all of the terrorists in the movie are killed. 

In the climax of the movie, the evil IT geek Theo (able to hack elevators, stop escalators, break safes etc) is getting ready to make a break for it in a stolen Ambulance when he is knocked out by Argyle, the sassy limousine driver.

Sassy limousine driver and inspiration to a young Usher

We know that at the end of the movie John McLane has been shot, blown up and beaten up, so decides to go back to his estranged wife's house for the palliative care that can only be provided by an illegal immigrant - driven by said limousine driver.

I can't administer care right now, I'm on the phone to a sassy limousine driver

But what ever happened to Theo?  Did the police find him, unconscious in a fake ambulance?  Or did he wake in time to flee the scene, only to go on and wreak havoc on elevators everywhere?  And finally, why didn't Argyle let the police know that one of the terrorists was knocked out in the car park?

Question of the Day: What is Tourism SA up to?!?

Tourism South Australia has recently come under fire for paying celebrities $750 per Tweet that they made to promote Kangaroo Island, as part of the larger current publicity campaign.

While the issue of disclosure does exist in this sort of promotion, reading what celebrities think from time to time about where they want to spend their holidays isn't necessarily compromising, nor should it be a source for detailed holiday planning.

The bigger issue, as I see it, in relation to this campaign is the Television advertisement, which shows people walking around beaches and forests in average weather while a familiar song plays in the background. 

What familiar song you may ask? "Rise" by Eddie Vedder, from the 'Into the Wild' soundtrack.  That's right, the very same soundtrack from the movie in which a young man goes (unprepared) into a forest that has average weather...and dies.

So what is Tourism SA up to?  Why are they getting Twitterers everywhere interested in visiting Kangaroo Island, and what do they have planned for aforementioned tourists?

Thought of the Day: Attendance isnt that exciting

Being a Melbourne Demons fan is a rather mixed blessing. There are very few expectations to actually win, which means that one has the pleasure of simply enjoying watching a game of football, rather than agonising over defeat or missed goals.

This culture of attendance has had mixed impacts on the club, during the 90's the management became a little too lackadaisical and almost killed it off completely through a merger. There was then a period of consideration, in which the club decided it did want to survive, but wasn't sure in what capacity.

It was during this time that Melbourne went through five club Presidents and six CEO's (7 if you don't count Cameron Schwab twice), before past champion Jim Stynes took over and set a course for club stability and growth, though with very little in the way of expectations for on-field success.

The recent tragic passing of Jim has coincided with the club again celebrating the culture of attendance through broadcasting its mediocrity to anyone listening.

This began with Don McLardy, the new President (best make that 6 Presidents) declaring that Melbourne wants to be one of the Top 5 clubs, not in the league, but in Victoria. What better way to strike fear into your opponents than by saying you want to be a bigger club than North Melbourne. And this was advertised as an ambition!

Most recently though, has been the very public announcement of Energy Watch as the major sponsor of the club, followed by the even more publicised ditching of Energy Watch as the major sponsor.

The appointment of Energy Watch was surprising to start with, as the company was already under investigation from the ACCC and the other contender for being the major sponsor was the Bank of Melbourne.

I'm not sure who was in charge of choosing a dodgy energy-referral website over one of the most established banks in Australia, but it was clearly not someone who wanted to change the 'attendance' reputation, but more shout it to the skies.

I suppose the lesson here is that whenever the club has gotten a little excited about itself, things have gone badly. If one is to be a club that provides a comfortable and enjoyable brand of football to be watched, one should promote itself accordingly.

Thought of the day - Not sure which market the ANZ is going for now here...

source: 'The Age', Wednesday, 8 Feb 2012

Cricket & Advertising don't mix (part II)

Following on from an earlier post, it seems like curse of advertising on our cricketers continues. KFC have been advertising their new 'it might be chicken' quite prominently throughout the Test series, with advertisements featuring the likes of:

• Mitchell Johnson (seems more occupied with showing off his underwear than with bowling well);
• Steve Smith (see earlier reference);
• Cameron White (recently dumped as T20 captain, though did score some handy club runs of late); and
• David Hussey (who should be on alert for injuries, falling pianos etc).

This trend of advertisers going with useless, washed-up or injured cricketers is really starting to make me wonder, why would they pick these players? Is KFCs advertising budget as cheap as their "food"? Or are they a bit smarter than the rest of us & are really appealing to the common man with common men?

Thought of the Day: Cricket & Advertising don't mix (part I)

Observe if you will the above packaging, witnessed last weekend at Coles, Northcote Plaza.

I was as surprised as you probably are, seeing that the worlds most identifiable brand is placing broken down or washed up cricketers on its product to help promote it. To elucidate:

• Steve Smith (far left): Has proven that, as a cricketer, he makes a fine trainer;
• Shane Watson: Brilliant cricketer when fit, which isn't now (or previously, or soon);
• Brett Lee: 400 years old and very, very weird;
• Doug Bollinger: Played some Test cricket until he couldn't be arsed and realised he made cash from being in ads pretending to still be a Test cricketer;
• Nathan Hauritz: Could have been placed in the ad out of sympathy, similar to the reason he was picked to play for Australia last (not this) summer; and
• Brad Haddin: Quite a good dropper of the ball, which is a unique skill for someone who still plays and practices the game.

So, is this another example of the curse of advertisers on cricketers, greater support of the theory that Cricket Australia doesn't know how to market itself, or perhaps a combination of the two?