Cricket Australia sold out to no viewers

I was shocked to find out there was a cricket match last night, Usually there would have been ads and promos throughout channel 9 but since Cricket Australia sold out pay tv in April the ODI’s are not on free to air.

James Sutherland the moron who took the cash and then quit months later is to blame. Sutherland then went on to say “More cricket coverage than ever before” in the press release. Yes there will be more coverage due to the women’s game growth but there will be less access to cricket than ever before because of his greed.

When the BBL was first formed its was a pay tv only product, no coincidence that when channel 10 got the rights BBL grew rapidly. It was something Channel 10 is proud of and the BBL product was so fitting for summer nights.

Channel 7 takes over the long history of Channel 9 showing the cricket. With all test matches and most (not all) BBL matches belonging to CH7. ODI’s and the rest of the BBL matches are on Fox Cricket, if you wanted to put and end to a struggling format (ODI) this is how you would do it.

The deal which lasts 6 years will have dropped Cricket down the list of sports for viewership and participation in Australia, have killed ODI’s and importantly filled Cricket Australia with money.

I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know there was cricket on or did not have access to it, viewership was down. That trend will continue, the price for a Fox cricket package isn’t worth it.

Cricket has been an Australian summer tradition for a long time, for most part excluding the introduction of the BBL it has been free. Fox Sports and Cricket Australia are going to come to so interesting realizations.