Field Theory by Hadyn Green

Pow:
I'm not a boxing fan, but the prospect of a David Tua versus Shane Cameron fight has me intrigued. However, I still have even money on it not happening.

Tua's camp is wary of this fight, mainly (I assume), because should Tua lose that will effectively be the end of his career. But of course he also wants to fight because he needs the money, though he'll never admit either of those reasons.

I'm also surprised at the TAB. They have Cameron as the $2.50 underdog. I'm also shocked because, if you believe Mark Stafford (and I have no reason not to), it seemed that they set the odds by wandering about the TAB offices and asking people what they reckoned.

Billed as the "Fight of the Century" (::cough::) the punch-up will most likely be on pay-per-view TV meaning that we might just see pubs full of people cheering at boxing. And that's something I've never seen but am really looking forward to, it seems so deliciously manly don't you think?

Vroom:
Who knew the Swiss could drive so well or that the Lebanese could drive so badly? Kiwi driver Chris van der Drift (talk about nomative determinism) was rightfully disappointed, but fifth in the sprint race is nothing to sniff at.

I really like the A1 GP set-up. I love the evenness of the cars and I love how it is pretty much a World Cup of motorsport. Well done Taupo. I was also quite happy that the coverage had less of this and more of this. Hamilton V8 organisers take note.

Ka-Ching:
In recent years we've become a little complacent with the idea of sportspeople earning incredibly large salaries by chasing a little ball around a field. Well with this new "credit crunch" ™ we are seeing players having to tighten their purse strings as well. Here's the evidence of the new frugality:

• Prince Fielder, a slugger for the Milwaukee Brewers, just signed a new contract for a mere USD$18M for two years (Fielder will be paid $7.5 million for 2009, including a $1 million bonus, and $10.5 million in 2010)
• Aston Villa offered a paltry £3.5M for Emile Hesky while Wigan spent only £4.5M on Colombian striker Hugo Rodallega
• And Kaka turned down a mere £100M to join Manchester City. City then offered David Villa £70M and Didier Drogba £180,000 per week.

Clearly I was being sarcastic. My honest initial reaction was "100 fucking million pounds! Nobody is worth that!"

Even teams are going for huge sums of money. The Chicago Cubs just sold for USD$900M (compared to the $450M paid for the Atlanta Braves in 2007 or the $180M paid for the Oakland Athletics in 2005). The Al-Kharafi family, of Kuwait, are planning a bid to buy Liverpool for £500M (though admittedly this is £100M less than the asking price).

But thing that gets me about this type of money is that the people offering it expect to get the money back through their purchases. Kaka was worth £100M to Manchester City because they figured (somehow) that he would be able to earn the club £100M or more in his time there.

Of course the credit crunch has shown up in some areas, mainly those involving corporate excess.

Playboy and Sports Illustrated announced in recent weeks that they would not be holding their annual Super Bowl parties. A celebrity golf tournament and party that was to be hosted by Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Warrick Dunn and Derrick Brooks was canceled because of a lack of sponsors, according to local media reports in Tampa. A few talent agencies also scrapped their party plans…

Visitors to the Tampa area this week are projected to spend upward of $150 million, a sizable sum but about 20 percent less than they would have spent under a healthier economy, according to a report by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Visitors will have shorter stays and will spend less in the hospitality industry and related businesses, the report said. The host committee has lowered its private fundraising goal from $8 million to $7 million.

I'll write more on the Superbowl later in the week.

Also the lack of sponsorship is meaning fewer sports may be viewed here. ESPN didn't option the rights for the FA Cup final and hence it might not be shown live here. Sky may still pursue the rights but don't guarantee it. Personally I'd like to see a group of like-minded football fans get together and put in an offer for the rights and then donate it to TVNZ or TV3 for free-to-air coverage and a share of the ad revenue.

I know I'm gonna be blasted for saying it but, it's been kinda quiet for sport recently.

Our women's beach volleyballers have been doing well at home. The men's and women's tennis tournaments were fun to watch (free to air!). The giant Waka Ama festival did its usual awesome stuff under the radar. We have seen the start of the summer rugby season (yes I know some you are angry at that) which also brought with it some strange headlines like: Highlanders' Coach Happy, yeah that's gotta be a typo.

The South Africa v Australia cricket matches have been a bit of fun, though mainly it's because the South Africans have been winning and, as I said on bfm the other day, those new Aussie uniforms are pretty cool.

Also fun has been the NFL play-offs where the Buzzsaw that is the Arizona Cardinals have cut their way through a number of teams who really should've beaten them and are now in the Superbowl. And the games have been real see-saw battles, not the usual blow-outs. This bodes well for the big game.

So what have I been doing during this natural sports hiatus? I have been growing a moustache.

Every guy does it. One day he goes into the bathroom, looks disdainfully at his razor and says: "not today, not today". Or perhaps as he shaves he stops and says to himself "you know what, I'm keeping this bit".

I always have some kind of facial hair and every time I hack it back to a manageable size I do so in a way that lets me try out all the facial hair styles I can. What? You didn't know that there was more than just beard or moustache? My friend, there is a multitude of designs each with a descriptive name such as Van Dyk or Balbo or Old Dutch.

Luckily, bloggers with time on their hands have been able to chart and attempt the various styles. And while the nomenclature is far from standard, a pattern emerges: Men have as many styles for their facial hair as they do for their, um, head hair.

This freedom of choice with one's degree and shape of mandible furriness led me to grow myself a "standard cop".

Note that this is an old pic and it was much bushier just before it was removed yesterday.

There is freedom in facial hair, a release from the constraints of male facial grooming, like women who gleefully stop shaving their legs in winter. And speaking of women, facial hair is a sure-fire way to win over the womenfolk (please note that I may be making this up) but I'm not sure how it works on menfolk.

While hair-growing I also indulged in a week long late-January holiday to Auckland that allowed me to meet Charlotte face-to-face, have a drink with Richard Irvine and José Barbosa and other friends (who don't have sites for me to link to).

And yes, basically this whole thing is an apology for not posting for a while.

You are awesome. No you really are. Without you a bunch of stuff wouldn't happen. And when it comes to sport you keep it going. You watch the games and go to them when you can, you buy the apparel and merchandise, you avidly follow the websites, and you convince your friends to watch.

So it's nice when you get something back.

We've discussed before how games on a weekend afternoon are quite nice. As are kids-go-for-free days and other fan appreciation events (at baseball games fan appreciation days are huge). But it all comes down to acknowledgment.

We just like to know that the players (and to a lesser extent the corporate folks) actually give a shit about us. We like them to wave at us when we chant their names, to sign autographs on the sidelines, to acquiesce to a quick photo. We don't want to be their best friend (although that would be cool), we don't need them to help us move house or take us to the airport. Heck we don't even really want a meaningful conversation beyond "Good game" "Thanks".

This is why I love sports stars on Twitter. I currently follow cycling legend Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) and American footballer Kerry Rhodes (@kerryrhodes). They have vastly different styles of communication.

Armstrong uses Twitter like a micro-blog. He talks about prepping for races, training regimes, live ride updates, and pics of, among other things, his new bike. Occasionally he'll respond to people, often people he knows (he only follows 42 people, while 24,000 follow him). But folks send him questions and general fan statements all the time.

Rhodes has a different approach. His tweets are much more like instant messaging. For example he sent out a tweet saying:

bout to go get light work out in.

This brought a slew of questions about what work out he was doing, what work outs people should try etc etc. And goddamn if Rhodes didn't answer all of them. This can make following his tweets hard (he's closing in on 500 tweets in a week) but it's also a real connection to the fans. At one point he linked to a YouTube clip so you could tell it was really him.

Obviously there is a self-interest aspect to this. The more connections you have to fans the better it can be for your wallet. Popular players draw fans which draws money and teams know this.

But even with that in mind the coolest thing this week was watching the Eagles Giants play-off game on the internet and sending Rhodes a casual tweet: "@kerryrhodes You gotta be loving watching the Eagles secondary" and got a response "@hadyngreen brian dawkins isnt playing well eli is missing recievers behind him but #27 and asante samuels is playing well". To put it in perspective this is like discussing scrums with Carl Hayman or fielding set-ups with Dan Vettori

There are quite a few sportspeople on Twitter and other social media (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube etc), how good they are at it though is variable.

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Shame about the cricket being rained off and not on free-to-air. I had a brief discussion with a friend yesterday bout how having cricket on pay TV might hurt cricket more than other sports, simply because of the length of time it takes to play. Hence more people would rather log on to CricInfo or a similar service than sit in a pub all day. Thoughts?

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Oh and I'm now doing a regular "bit" on the Monday Morning Glory show on bFM. Feel free to tell me if I suck or not.

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Finally, is this the best cricket-related music video ever?

I had almost gone thirty years without attending a cricket match. Really I had no idea of what to expect.

Like every game I expected there to be rituals I wouldn't understand at first, taboos I might commit, much like the drunken Kiwi supporter who was told to "shhh" at the All Blacks/Munster game. I didn't even know if they'd serve hotdogs at the Stadium (answer: yes they do, no cucumber sandwiches to be seen).

You've probably been wondering how a guy who enjoys and writes about sport can never have gone to a cricket match and not really even like it. Well first off I don't believe that you have to be a fan of all sports to be a sports fan. For example I love American football, hate NASCAR and am ambivalent about ice hockey. But every sport deserves a chance. I used to think baseball was a slow game that had a billion games every season, and while that's still true, I have found that I actually enjoy watching it.

And when I was a young man I followed cricket (to a small extent). I knew the names of the New Zealand team (in the pre-Black Caps era). I even used to practice bowling on the deck at my house. I know some of you are shocked. And to add to that shock, I was once named captain of a cricket team at school, though to be fair I was shocked at that.

We had a run of cricket games for PE at Intermediate and I still remember the day I was fielding and hesitated before throwing the ball to the wicketkeeper. A hesitation that gave up a possible run out. The teacher then repeatedly threw me the ball and made me throw it back to the wicketkeeper as "practice", so if you need a someone on your team who can do that, I'm your guy. Batting or bowling not so much.

Unfortunately, much like my throw, I was late in getting to the Black Caps game by an hour and so missed (like) five wickets. I was waiting for one of my guides outside and I heard the cheers for a couple, followed by a text from a friend already inside.

Upon entry and alcohol purchase (so far it's just like a rugby game) we make our way to Tom (dressed in a linen suit, panama hat and bow tie, THIS is cricket!) who has accidentally purchased tickets in the "family section". We move during a drinks break to the "adult section".

The crowd was no different from any other at an afternoon sports event, just a little more restless perhaps. It has occurred to me that a blow-out in cricket (such as that seen at this game) is far less enjoyable to watch than a blow-out in other sports. A team bowled out for a low score (and the Windies looked like they might bow out before 100) means a shortened run chase, and unless you have a terrible line-up, then it's going to be fairly dull (or spectacular but short) and without tension.

This may have been why at various times chants of "boring" went up, the Mexican wave occasionally circled (once doing a full four laps unstopped) and beach balls were batted around until being confiscated by security.

But to the field itself: I was surprised how small it seemed and at the same time how empty. Shirley, my second guide, told me to wait for the tests at the Basin Reserve, where the low white fence and tiny ground make the players feel even closer. But the large gaps between fielders did throw me. The few times I've watched cricket on TV it seems as though the ground is teeming with them.

As I studied the players I took the time to bore inform my third guide Jed on the why the uniforms were anything but uniform. Please indulge me: first there are short and long sleeve versions of the basic shirt, then there are skin tight body suits (two different kinds), then there is the pullover, and finally the hats. Given the number of different combos you could have of these I'm unsure if any two people on the field were dressed the same (except maybe the umpires). Also radial arching of letters is fine and dandy, unless your name is long (like Chanderpaul) and it then ends up in a semi-circle.

I did enjoy the gamesmanship between the players. I have received many forwarded emails filled with supposed quotes from famous cricketers ("You still with that skank?" "No I stopped banging your wife years ago" etc) but I never thought that the interaction would really be that intense. I mean, cricket's a sport for gentlemen, right?

That's when I saw Dan Vettori, the man's got an actual fucking swagger, an arrogance that belies his boyish face and glasses. He strode down the pitch after a dismissal eyeing his defeated foe and with the hint of a malicious grin tapped the side of his head in an understated motion that said that he was vastly intelligent and the batsman was some sort of dim-witted imbecile. In slow motion on the big screen it was even better.

I am thankful that I took a number of guides. Without them I would've been at a loss. And perhaps that's what I've been missing; perhaps I was just in need of others to answer my various inane questions ("What the fuck is a power play?"), to make jokes with and to help me relate the experience to things I've already done.

I have a feeling that it would have been a greater experience to go to a fully packed game with scores in the 200s though. I know, duh. But the Stadium was almost half empty. One of Taylor's sixes flew straight into empty stands that normally would be filled with the after work crowd. Except many had been watching on the net and figured they'd save their money for the next game.

So has the experience left me wanting more? Yes, surprisingly. The Windies lacklustre batting I could've done without, but the Black Caps did entertain me. I understand that Jessie Ryder is a dividing figure amongst fans, but he is actually quite fun to watch; though I would still like to see him bat with a beer in one hand (spilling any is a "consume"). I also quickly caught on that the fans love to hate Kyle Mills. And the sixes were pretty cool (the low straight one hit the hoarding just below where we were sitting) but I kind of wanted to see the chase keep going.

So in many ways I want to see more because I don't think this game delivered. But have I actually learned to enjoy cricket? I think I have. I'm not at the level of Emma or some of the others who comment here, but I was able to correct a friend recently about when the next game was on. I felt very chuffed.

Thanks to the wonderful folks at NZ Cricket I'm off to the game today with a bunch of "cultural attachés" to help me fit in with cricket fans.

I was planning for this to somehow be a live blog (with a richer account tomorrow) but I wasn't able to get internet access at the stadium. So unless some very kind and generous person lends me an iPhone (I'll give you a kilo of coffee) then it'll have to be Twitter updates (@hadyngreen) and occasional web updates.

I popped down to the Railway station and saw a few of the keener fans already getting cash, drinking beers and eating lunch. A fair amount of beige and black, but also some grey (with colourful shoulders) and aqua as well. I have decided to wear my royal blue NY Mets Johan Santana shirt. Baseball is pretty much like cricket, isn't it?

Anyway if you see me, say hello. We're all about community.