Muloghonto
U19 12th Man
I am sorry but you are completely clueless on what i am talking about. An IPL team does not hire Tikolo to break into the Kenyan market. They don't give two figs about the Kenyan market or the Aussie one for that matter. But they will hire a Steve Tikolo if they thought Steve Tikolo was good enough and pay half a million for him. This is what makes Steve Tikolo and his compatriots exponentially more interested in cricket and persue professional cricket- to make big bucks for their talent instead of playing for team kenya at ICC events that give free food and hotel only. Thats exactly how soccer works in Africa- Real madrid does not care about the African market. The africans care about real madrid because of the money they can make via Real madrid.You're making broad brush assumptions based on your own experience in a North American context.
Why don't you reference your "known facts" and demonstrate how they apply to all current cricket jurisdictions? NZ TV has just started showing the Sri Lanka vs. Pakistan Test Series. They've never shown such a supposedly niche Test series in the past, but they are doing so now. Despite the "known fact" that Test cricket eats up too much network time. In fact, they've shown this instead of bothering to provide coverage of all domestic T20 games or any domestic one day games. Yes, the Test cricket coverage was (presumably) a cheaper option, but they still wouldn't show it if the demand was zero.
Test cricket is viable. I was just at a world record attendance Test match at the MCG. The attendance was up on any other Test match held there since the MCG's current expansion was completed (early 2000s?) and would also have been watched by multitudes on TV in Australia and England, as well as a good number elsewhere - like myself in NZ if I hadn't been at the game. Just because there's no chance of Test cricket ever making any inroads into the North American market doesn't give you the right to dictate that based on that evidence, it is a "non viable" form.
Steve Tikolo is a bizarre example as he'd have never fetched half a mil in the IPL. John Davison based on his World Cup exploits, perhaps. How many associate players are making their way in BBL/IPL at the moment? Ryan ten Doeschate - a South African by birth and education, Dirk Nannes - an Australian. These franchise leagues pay the big bucks for players who will attract more viewers and more $$$. You think that they're interested in signing up Tikolo to penetrate the "lucrative" Kenyan market? Not a chance - they'll keep signing up guys in the main countries in order to penetrate the existing big money markets there.
But you did inadvertantly hit the nail on the head when you said ' just because test cricket has zero chance of penetrating north american market'.
That is precisely the crux of the problem. Test cricket has a zero percent chance of penetrating any market where it isn't already established in, from the pre cable/sattelite tv age.
My position is not about having status quo ante bellum, it is about growth of the sport- which is patently impossible with the most unmarkatable and unlucrative form of the game hogging the schedule (test cricket). If you want a global sport which can one day rival soccer ( and cricket certainly can- it requires strategy and skill, not just skill like baseball, it requires a patch of dirt, a ball and 8 sticks to play!) then test cricket cannot have more than 2 months of the year dedicated to it. If you want the current status quo to prevail where cricket is essentially India plus a few anglophile countries of the former british empire that ultimately do not matter to the sport's finances or popular base, then carry on.