You might argue I have a slightly cricket obsessed mind.
I saw the headline Ducks In A Row in my RSS reader and immediately clicked through. But “duck” sometimes just means “duck”.
Ducks in a row
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Monthly Archives: June 2010
Livestreams World Cricket League on ICC website
Good news. According to the KNCB-website, the ICC is going to livestream several matches from the World Cricket League Division 1 on its website.
All the six games played on the VRA-ground – including the final on July 10 – will be broadcasted live on internet. Those six matches account for almost a third of the entire tournament and each team plays at least once at VRA:
- July 1 - The Netherlands vs Scotland
- July 3 – Canada vs Scotland
- July 5 – Kenya vs Afghanistan
- July 9: – The Netherlands vs Ireland
- July 10 – Final
For the full list of fixtures, visit the ICC website.
Really a great initiative by the ICC and, as far as I know, the first time an ICC event for associate members will be livestreamed.
ESPN's livestreaming is top quality
Right now, I am watching England vs Australia at Sophia Gardens on ESPNplayer.com. And just like Will Luke promised, the quality is astonishingly good.
It looks great in their 960 x 540 pixels sized player, and even better when watching full screen on my 15 inch laptop.
Here are some screenshots of the player:
I did miss Sky Sports’ analysis during the innings break and got to watch a ”be right back”-message. And in general, I am not a big fan of using flash for livestreaming, because it always seems to get pixelated around the edges.
But really, with the quality offered by ESPN who cares about a little pixelation? It is that good, it might just make me switch from Willow TV.
Netherlands win, but the Dutch don't know it
Yesterday, Netherlands beat Scotland in an ODI. With the World Cup going on in South Africa, not many people will have noticed. Just like the Intercontinental Cup-game played over the weekend has gone by largely unnoticed by Dutch sports fans.
If the KNCB and ICC want to broaden interest in cricket in the Netherlands, they will have to get the sport under the attention of the public. To do that, they need media coverage. And cricket will not get any coverage here when there is a World Cup football going on.
Last year, when Netherlands played the World Twenty20 and famously beat England in the opening game, cricket made the sports headlines. With not much else going on, cricket was an entertaining alternative and the surprise victory of our boys sparked more interest than ever.
Yesterday’s victory against Scotland is obviously not as sexy as beating England at the World Twenty20, but the latter would also not have gotten as much media coverage as it did, had there been a World Cup football to compete with.
The point is, planning international matches for the ‘lesser’ countries should include making sure there are no major sport events at the same time. It will not always be possible to avoid an overlap, but surely more effort could be made? Was there no way Scotland could have come over a week earlier?
Cricket’s governing bodies understand the role of the media perfectly, but seem to have missed the trick when planning these fixtures.
Ironically, there was an item yesterday on cricket in of the WC football tv-shows. Erik van Muiswinkel, a Dutch comedian and cricketer, visited the Wanderers for NOS’ Studio Sportzomer. I embedded it below. It is in Dutch, so for those of you who speak the beautiful language, enjoy:
