daveydave

It's been a while since I created a blog - and this time I've created one with a purpose. Of sorts. To tie in with my forthcoming trip to South Africa and the Cricket twenty20 World Cup, I've made a new blog that will act as a diary of sorts while I'm over there. Those of you out there of a cricketing persuasion can have a look here .

We all know that Sky has done its bit for sport - for good and ill. Those who choose to pay for the premium sports services that Sky offers undoubtedly enjoy very fine coverage of a wide variety of sports. However, for those of us who do not like to pay £600 a year for telly, there is little regular coverage outside of football. Yesterday, there were two semi-finals played. Had they been FA Cup related there would have been an almighty uproar that there were no highlights shown on any terrestrial channel. Because they were cricket matches, no one will bat an eyelid. It's sad really, cricket is supposed to be the second most popular game in this country and yet, during the season, it does not warrant a weekly programme along the lines of Match of the Day. Channel Five broadcast very enjoyable highlights from England test matches, but there is a whole county structure in place that never gets any real coverage. Can you honestly see Match of the Day only being broadcast when the nat...

I've gone and done it, I've bought tickets for the Cricket twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. The only time I've ever been to an international sporting event such as this before was the European Football Championships in 1996 and that was in England, so doesn't really count. A couple of posts ago I raised a few points about the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies and the price of tickets in particular. So, it's fantastic to see that the organisers have pegged the prices down - quite unbelievably so. I've bought seats for 4 group matches and 4 super-8s. 8 matches, including games featuring Australia, South Africa and England for a total of 340 Rand. That works out at around £24. Well done Cricket South Africa for making the games affordable for all. I just have to sort out flights and hotels now and then sit back and look forward to a couple of weeks in Cape Town. References: Introduction to twenty20 on Wikipedia Cricket South Africa Cricket 20