A T20 match can be reduced to highlights showing only 4's 6's and wickets. Seeing only highlights of a T20 game doesnt detract from the game too much. But i detest watching Test highlights as it takes away the build up to certain events and the tactics and counter tactics employed by batting and bowling teams as they struggle for supremacy. The slow burn when nothing much happens then lots starts happening all at once. A T20 match is a McDonalds Big Mac consumed quickly but without nourishment. A test match is a 10 course fine dining meal with shiny cutlery, matured wine, taste buds popping and occasional disagreements and arguments over the dinner table.
Loved watching PH play - an old player at MU CC - comparing cricket with literature - a Test match is like a novel - an ODI is like a short story- a T20 is like a comic strip
Perhaps an overly optimistic take but am not sure anyone (other than a degenerate*) would bet on a particular moment without having watched any of the context preceding that moment? The person betting on micro-moments is almost certainly watching live with full attention, not consuming de-contextualised clips on social media. If anything gambling may therefore reinforce broadcast consumption rather than bypass it.
Cricket Australia uses WSC Sports' AI platform to automate video highlight creation, producing 100 posts per match day across multiple channels. This helps CA maximise content output without ceding rights to a third party like the NBA has done. That those clips are re-posted on platforms such as YouTube are only likely to increase widespread consumption of the game.
Just my 2 cents
*A degenerate being someone who sees speculation as entertainment and investing is a sport.
Is this diagnosis or symptomatic? Seems a perfectly dreadful way to think about cricket in any event. Or anything really.
Cricket as a commodity, where owners and consumers respond to each other's greed and irrationality in a dismal spiral. Every moment, every deed, every accomplishment is but a data point, a stat to dig up, fondle and mull over, fetishise and transform into content emptied out as another externality, just more pollution.
Insightful piece. Like Dolge, I hate framing the game this way but 🤷🏻♂️- capitalism eats everything.
That said, I agree that CA must flip their thinking about the nature of a cricket fan’s attention. It’s a strategy shift - not a marketing one. Discovering the game is no longer a linear process (it happens across multiple entry points: clips/attending a test/podcasts, substacks), so the key for CA is to intentionally shape cricket media / experiences for the context in which they appear, and to have strategies for making the most coin out of each of those individual segments (which are not just duplicates of each other).
One way to approach it in a general sense would be a shift in thinking away from the game as a hard mineral, to the game as water which can be directed into multiple places.
It would be a mistake to turn the spigot on full bore and try and be everywhere all the time. Wiser to pursue a strategy where CA makes deliberate decisions about selecting key moments (Smudge’s six on the roof) and making sure they are packaged to travel quickly and for as far as possible across multiple formats.
A T20 match can be reduced to highlights showing only 4's 6's and wickets. Seeing only highlights of a T20 game doesnt detract from the game too much. But i detest watching Test highlights as it takes away the build up to certain events and the tactics and counter tactics employed by batting and bowling teams as they struggle for supremacy. The slow burn when nothing much happens then lots starts happening all at once. A T20 match is a McDonalds Big Mac consumed quickly but without nourishment. A test match is a 10 course fine dining meal with shiny cutlery, matured wine, taste buds popping and occasional disagreements and arguments over the dinner table.
Loved watching PH play - an old player at MU CC - comparing cricket with literature - a Test match is like a novel - an ODI is like a short story- a T20 is like a comic strip
Yes, great article made me think that once the audience chose cricket, but now cricket Algorithms and various platforms is choosing the audience.
Perhaps an overly optimistic take but am not sure anyone (other than a degenerate*) would bet on a particular moment without having watched any of the context preceding that moment? The person betting on micro-moments is almost certainly watching live with full attention, not consuming de-contextualised clips on social media. If anything gambling may therefore reinforce broadcast consumption rather than bypass it.
Cricket Australia uses WSC Sports' AI platform to automate video highlight creation, producing 100 posts per match day across multiple channels. This helps CA maximise content output without ceding rights to a third party like the NBA has done. That those clips are re-posted on platforms such as YouTube are only likely to increase widespread consumption of the game.
Just my 2 cents
*A degenerate being someone who sees speculation as entertainment and investing is a sport.
So good to read someone who articulates one’s own thinking - maybe not completely, definitely mostly. I enjoyed this!
Is this diagnosis or symptomatic? Seems a perfectly dreadful way to think about cricket in any event. Or anything really.
Cricket as a commodity, where owners and consumers respond to each other's greed and irrationality in a dismal spiral. Every moment, every deed, every accomplishment is but a data point, a stat to dig up, fondle and mull over, fetishise and transform into content emptied out as another externality, just more pollution.
Insightful. Who will listen?
Insightful piece. Like Dolge, I hate framing the game this way but 🤷🏻♂️- capitalism eats everything.
That said, I agree that CA must flip their thinking about the nature of a cricket fan’s attention. It’s a strategy shift - not a marketing one. Discovering the game is no longer a linear process (it happens across multiple entry points: clips/attending a test/podcasts, substacks), so the key for CA is to intentionally shape cricket media / experiences for the context in which they appear, and to have strategies for making the most coin out of each of those individual segments (which are not just duplicates of each other).
One way to approach it in a general sense would be a shift in thinking away from the game as a hard mineral, to the game as water which can be directed into multiple places.
It would be a mistake to turn the spigot on full bore and try and be everywhere all the time. Wiser to pursue a strategy where CA makes deliberate decisions about selecting key moments (Smudge’s six on the roof) and making sure they are packaged to travel quickly and for as far as possible across multiple formats.
Peter