October 2006

TV rights for the BCCI: Just say No!

Submitted by rickeyre on

The wealthiest sporting body in the world not to have its own website, the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), wants to buy the worldwide broadcasting and new media rights to all ICC-run tournaments from 2007 to 2015. There is just one word that should be said, if not screamed, in reply:

No!

Never mind that the BCCI's current executive conducts business with a coherence and transparency that makes the North Korean Government green with envy, it's the simple conflict of interest involved in one franchise owning all the most lucrative rights to a competition in which it is one of the players.

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Up the Youtubes

Submitted by rickeyre on

"Innovations such as YouTube are just one of many reasons why technology and time are making a nonsense of the current media rules."

- Senator Helen Coonan, addressing the conservative Millennium Forum, Sydney, 3.10.06

One week after the Minister for Information and Communication Technology cites Youtube as an example of contemporary media diversity, we are greeted this morning with the following news: Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion in Stock.

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Happy birthday Desmond Tutu

Submitted by rickeyre on

Desmond Tutu, one of the great living human rights campaigners and the outstanding Anglican cleric of our time, turns 75 today, 7 October 2006.

The SABC website has some local reportage of the Archbishop Emeritus' birthday. The BBC has a new interview in video.

This is the text of a birthday message to Archbishop Tutu written by World Council of Churches chairman, Rev. Samuel Kobia:

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Fight no battle you are not sure of winning

Submitted by rickeyre on

Julie Bishop is one of the brighter hopefuls in the ever-depleting talent pool of the federal Liberal Party. Alternatively, she has been pushed to the forefront by the Howard Government as the Anti-Gillard. Certainly she is one of the few female members of cabinet the JWH era who is neither (a) in the mould of Jeanette Howard, or (b) Amanda Vanstone. (Or indeed c, the unrelated Bronwyn Bishop).

People:: 
john howard
julie bishop
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australia
politics
education

Peter Norman 1942-2006

Submitted by rickeyre on

Peter Norman died in Melbourne yesterday at the age of 64. He should be regarded as one of Australia's greatest sporting legends. He probably won't be.

At a time when Australia's prowess on the athletics track was in decline, Norman's crowning achievement was to win the silver medal in the 200 metres at the Mexico Olympics in 1968. The gold medallist in that event was Tommie Smith, the bronze medallist John Carlos.

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Inzi takes a holiday

Submitted by rickeyre on

Ranjan Madugalle's verdicts in the Inzamam ul-Haq hearing last week were no surprise to me. I expected the ball-tampering charge to be chucked out, and likewise I expected Inzi to be found guilty on the disrepute charge of not returning to the field. The four match suspension seems reasonable enough. The full text of the judgment can be found on the ICC website.

Madugalle dismissed the charge, saying:

People:: 
darrell hair
inzamam ul-haq
ranjan madugalle
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A change of blog

Submitted by rickeyre on

A special cheerio to those of you who are visiting this website via Patrick Kidd's cricket blog at The Times, "Line and Length". Patrick picked up on my item on Anthony Albanese's cricketing analogy to fighting global warming. (And no, I don't go trawling Hansard every night for quotes, I happened to see Albo on the tele giving the speech in question.)

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rick eyre

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