The Chequered History of the Cricket World Cup and 2015 as Redemption?

Excerpt from recent submitted article on Cricket World Cup, its televised spectacle and innovative technologies …..

Established in 1975, the Cricket World Cup (CWC) has undergone regular transformations across its formative years. The first three events were staged in England before moving ‘abroad’, and ranged from initially 8 teams to 16 in 2007. The CWC was also primarily identified via its branded sponsors (e.g., the 1992 Benson and Hedges World Cup) until becoming the ICC World Cup from 1999. Despite its pinnacle status, reinforced through clichéd ICC slogans as the ‘flagship event of the cricketing calendar’ and cricket’s ‘greatest prize’, the reach and appeal of the CWC is somewhat limited.

Comparative to the global scale, scope and audience for the Olympics or Football World Cup, John Horne (2010) suggests that the CWC is a second tier sports mega-event. As an example, the 2011 CWC’s estimated 2.2 billion television viewers was almost doubled by the 2014 Football World cup (4 billion). Primarily, its audience comprises of the cricket-playing commonwealth nations, being bolstered by South Asia (notably India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) and their global diaspora. Moreover, problems and tensions have dogged many of the contemporary CWC iterations.

Most poignant was the 2007 Caribbean tournament which witnessed the death of Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer, the early exits of India and Pakistan, and a farcical final completed in near darkness. More significantly, John Horne (2010) and Boira Majumdar (2009) observed that exorbitant ‘legacy’ spending on stadiums and infrastructure nearly bankrupted the small islands when projected tourist numbers failed to materialise. The tournament had also been hamstrung by promoting a carnivalesque ‘calypso’ atmosphere that, in reality, was curtailed by prohibitions on musical instruments, fan materials and high ticket prices that kept locals away. Tim Crabbe and Stephen Wagg’s (2005) discussion of the 1999 event in the United Kingdom found that a similar set of restrictions had marginalised non-western fans.

Regrettably, the political tensions, perceived security threats and boycotted matches in Zimbabwe and Kenya overshadowed the 2003 tournament, while previous terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team in 2009 had seen Pakistan lose its co-host status for 2011. Nevertheless, the 2011 tournament in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh saw an upsurge in interest, primarily reflecting the fervent supporter base and increasing economic and political power of India.

 

The Emergence and Threat of T20 Cricket
While a volatile mix of sport and political tensions undermined contemporary CWC’s, the once championed accelerated action and popularity of 50-over one day international (ODI) matches were also in decline. Arguably, an over-saturation of often meaningless games, stagnant periods of play (mid-innings lulls) and its seven hour duration had diluted the sustained invested interest of advertisers, audiences and producers alike. Various experimentations with shortened cricket forms had been trialled before the advent of T20 cricket (a three hour, 20 overs per side competition). English county cricket first introduced T20 matches in 2003 and, despite persistent reverberations of mere novelty, entertainment and being less prestigious or important, the format was increasingly taken up elsewhere.

Colin Agur (2013:542) observes,
“Initially conceived as a mid-season diversion to attract fans to county matches, Twenty20 quickly grew into an essential money-maker and stadium-filler for domestic leagues in the world’s cricketing countries. T20 spawned international competitions and tournaments during the late 2000s, while most domestic formats have regional or franchise T20 teams that attract international players”.

Most pertinent in terms of prestige, commerce and media attention has been the Indian Premier League (IPL) since 2008. Despite banning Pakistani players, the IPL attracts the top global players through its hype, spectacle and unprecedented lavish salaries that dwarf nationally-derived contracts. Colin Agur (2013) also notes that the IPL has solidified the status of T20s and specifically the post-western or Indianisation of cricket due to India’s economic, media and political clout in shaping cricket globally. As spectacle, the IPL has drawn upon pre-existing ODI/CWC techniques of musical interludes and corporate branding. Nevertheless, these have been further embellished, exacerbated and entrenched by the IPL. Within matches, an (over)use of musical interludes, trumpet blares and celebrity appearances are pronounced, while boundary hits or wickets are repetitively accompanied by screened slogans, dancing girls and bursts of contained flammable gas. That these aforementioned techniques and ‘spectacular displays’ were prominent during the 2015 CWC seems to further reinforce the preeminence of the IPL as the stylistic, commercial and high profile template emulated by most limited overs cricket competitions around the world.

T20s are perceived as ideal for networks and advertisers due to the comparative ease of scheduling a frenetic three hour contest that attracts a broader audience than strictly just interested or knowledgeable fans. The future of cricket seems to be encapsulated in the T20 format, while calling into question the place, longevity and sustainability of ODIs and the CWC. Jon Hotten (2015), for example, describes 50-over cricket as having become “worn out” and “ominously predictable” in light of there being a “new, futuristic format to play” after the 2011 CWC. He further suggests that the CWC’s overt commercial function had been usurped by T20s and, unlike test cricket, ODI’s were failing to incorporate the more entertaining dynamics of the T20 format.

Cricket World Cup 2015 Redemption?
Co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, the recent 2015 CWC has been praised for reinvigorating the tournament and allegedly producing high intensity cricket and a more entertaining spectacle. As Simon Barnes (2015) observes, the 2015 CWC “combined T20 batsmanship with test match bowling and test match field settings, and the dreary routines of this form of the game were electrified”. In terms of tactics, the attacking strategies of leading captains and batsmen, as well as the aggressive bowling and fielding displays, were perceived to have updated the game. Co-hosts and eventual finalists, Australia and New Zealand, were identified as being at the forefront of such transformations. In contrast, England was singled out as a failure for still seemingly being mired in the ponderous approach of the 1990s (Hotten, 2015).

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum destroyed England with his batting – effectively setting up New Zealand’s win within 13 overs.

Off the field, the co-hosts were further celebrated for their collective efforts in revitalising the tournament. New Zealand, in particular, seemed to be granted especial attention with clichéd and hyperbolic praise as ‘perfect hosts’, for embodying the spirit of the CWC (“Awesome Aussies”, 2015), and for collectively embracing the event as a nation (Fleming, 2015). In terms of significance, the 2015 CWC had begun to integrate the popular dynamics of the T20 format while harnessing the nationalistic sentiments and outpourings associated with host nations staging global events (Sturm and Lealand, 2012).

References:

Agur, C., “A Foreign Field No Longer: India, the IPL, and the Global Business of Cricket”, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 48, 5 (2013): 541-556.

“Awesome Aussies, Nice New Zealand, and a Big Brother House”. ESPNCricinfo, March 30, 2015. Accessed May 7, 2015. http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-cricket-world-cup-2015/content/story/857249.html.

Barnes, S., “Attack Breathes New Life into the ODI”. ESPNCricinfo, March 31, 2015. Accessed May 7, 2015. http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/857547.html

Crabbe, T., and Wagg, S., ‘“A Carnival of Cricket? The Cricket World Cup, ‘Race’ and the Politics of Carnival’”, in Cricket and National Identity in the Postcolonial Age, edited by S. Wagg, London: Routledge, 2005: 28-47.

“Cricket World Cup 2015 3rd Most Watched Sports Event in the World”. Total Sportek, January 11, 2015. Accessed May 3, 2015. http://www.totalsportek.com/news/cricket-world-cup-third-most-watched-sports-event/.html

Fleming, S., “World Cup has seen New Zealand Fall in Love-with Cricket Again”. ICC-Cricket, April 2, 2015. Accessed May 7, 2015. http://www.icc-cricket.com/cricket-world-cup/news/2015/columns/87655/stephen-fleming-world-cup-has-seen-new-zealand-fall-in-love-with-cricket-again.html.

Gupta, A., “The IPL and the Indian Domination of Global Cricket”, Sport in Society, 14, 10 (2011): 1316-25

Horne, J., “Cricket in Consumer Culture: Notes on the 2007 Cricket World Cup”, American Behavioral Scientist, 53, 10 (2010): 1549-1568.

Hotten, J., “Fifty-Over Cricket, I was Wrong”. ESPNCricinfo, March 30, 2015. Accessed May 7, 2015. http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/857349.html

Majumdar, B., “A Legacy Deeply Mired in Contradiction: World Cup 2007 in Retrospect”, Sport in Society, 12, 4-5 (2009): 657-669.

Rumford, C., ed., Twenty20 and the Future of Cricket, London: Routledge, 2013.

Sturm, D., and Lealand, G., “Evoking ‘New Zealandness’: Representations of Nationalism during the 2011 (New Zealand) Rugby World Cup”, MediaNZ, 13, 2 (2012): 46-65.

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Affective Assemblages – Darts as Media Spectacle

Excerpt from recent submitted article on autoethnography representations and fan performances…..

I should be writing. I know the deadline is pressing, having cleared other commitments for the week to get this piece over the line. Instead I am procrastinating. The 2013 Darts World Match Play final on television is proving to be a worthy spectacle, particularly for one presently easily led to distraction. Perhaps, also, it is the commentators’ reassurance that this is the best Match Play darts final that they have ever witnessed that makes me linger. I know I should switch the television off, so I reach for the remote. Instead, I find myself turning the volume up and reclining further on the couch.

It is a marvelous display of darts, two talented players continually top-scoring (“180!” the match official booms yet again) to peg the other back in a see-sawing contest. My thoughts drift to my own guilty pleasure in watching darts, a seemingly recent endeavor. Scouring my memories of darts, I recall my first unorthodox viewing as a youngster. The 1980s ‘Not the Nine O’Clock News’ British comedy had a skit where Mel Smith and Griff Jones mocked the sport, simulating the darts throwing action while reaching for one of the bevy of drinks laid out before him. Smith was scored according to the alcoholic beverage he obtained and sculled.

Upon reflection, the skit was probably apt for the time; the pub culture setting with connotations of beer-guzzling players ripe for ridicule. And yet, its recent televisual transformation has intrigued me as a media/sport scholar. The contemporary makeover and advances which reproduce darts as sporting spectacle seems to equally bemuse and entertain my students when I discuss it in classes. Nevertheless, while its constructedness is overt, recognizable and easy to critique, it still can resonate for its viewers. Indeed, while I wouldn’t classify myself as a ‘darts fan’, it does, on occasions, provide a compelling sports spectacle that I find myself engrossed in. This is proving to be the case today.

***

The enthralling match continues to disrupt my writing. Adrian ‘Jackpot’ Lewis is starting to make up ground on Phil ‘the Power’ Taylor midway through the match, both players counter-punching with a succession of 180 and 140 scores.

***

The constructed pseudo-event of exaggerated figures with their fabricated personas equally interests and amuses me. There is the pre-match announcement and entrance, an obvious derivative of the hype of a boxing fight or the excess of a professional wrestling match, with the players ‘striding’ like prized fighters to the ring. Often clichéd and banal, the irony for these physically-dubious male ‘athletes’ (in reality obese middle-aged men) with their individuated themed music, imagery and effects is explicit. Hence the ‘tungsten titans’ or other throw-away commentators’ descriptors add to the hyperbole of these literally larger-than-life characters. “Just imagine if you made them do shuttle-runs between their set of throws!” I often quip to my classes.

***

My attention is again drawn to the screen as Lewis throws his eighth 180 points score in eight legs. “They certainly can play, brandishing extraordinary accuracy and consistency at the oche” I acknowledge in passing. The crowd, predominantly decaled in themed attire, raucously cheer both players on. The majority of the crowd seems suitably lubricated with alcohol.

***

As an emerging media/sport scholar I recognize the artifice and yet allure of transforming the bland players into colorful characters, the offering of media-inflated, identifiable and engaging personas for viewers/fans to support and follow. I find that I do pay occasional attention to the progression of select individuals yet would consider my relationship to be an affectively weak form of spectatorship (would fandom even apply here?). Thus, I keep tabs on how James ‘The Machine’ Wade fares, one of the younger generation who looked a little different when he emerged with spectacles, stubble and the noticeably absent, yet almost obligatory, beer belly. Here, I thought, might be my ‘Jacques Villeneuve’ of the darts world. However, since 2009, he has piled on the pounds and, regrettably, is an inarticulate and insipid post-match interview. He is no Jacques Villeneuve! And then of course there is the champion. Phil ‘the Power’ Taylor’s dominance and brilliance has seen him crowned an unprecedented 16 times world champion. He is featuring yet again in another darts final.

I reflect on Taylor’s negotiation of the new heavily mediated age for darts. In recent years Taylor seems to have worked hard at cultivating a more likeable personality, although his ruthlessness and single-minded competitive streak tends to make such a projection paper-thin. Glancing back at the screen, I find my attention is drawn to the ‘power’ tattoo etched on his right forearm. It is alluring. Magnetic. Affective. A reminder of a (paradoxically constructed) persona long established before the new television deals for darts. The tattoo connoting the older bar-room brawler stereotype for a generation whereby such displays were less commonplace, but now resonating for a younger generation prone to inking their skin in highly visible ways. It’s a prominent marker and testament to his darting legacy.

***

Before me, that burly, tattooed forearm is once again in motion, producing a smooth and seamless release of the tungsten. Steady under pressure, Taylor checks-out to win a record-breaking 14^th World Match Play Title. I find myself applauding the televised image, acknowledging yet another major event that I have seen him win. Rising off the couch, I now plant myself in front of another screen to re-focus on the writing. 

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