Posts by Alex Gilks
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Nice piece.
Patriotism and music: I wandered past Thomas Bracken's memorial yesterday and remembered my favourite mad caller on Radio Sport on Sunday morning: "We need a new national anthem". Pretty sure she was being ironic, but fair cop, we have to put up with a dreadful dirge.
I should say I don't think these kind of things make teams play better or worse but we should at least try to make our team a little more stylish.Music that may not take forever to change: those crap songs they play pieces of when the ABs score a try. Slice of Heaven? It was bad in 1986, it's embarrassing, it's about an animated dog and the fat badly-dressed affluent baby-boomer supporters who squawk around in groups outside these distant stadiums. The sounds could be dark and mysterious, and a bit now, just some beats maybe. I don't know who the NZRU takes its musical advice from. OK not everything has to be seamlessly branded, but do they realise that to a young audience this would be the equivalent of playing Max Merritt over the PA at a test match when I was a kid in the late 70s.
-
Yes can team management employ some kind of colour consultant? Jot down CONTRAST in the notebook, boss. Didn't the ABs have a red strip at one point? Doesn't the trainer have a bag of yellow bibs, perfect for a cockup like this?
A NZ vs Samoa/Tonga test played in the islands: in my lifetime hopefully, would love it. Hell, we OWE it. Maybe more of a chance in near future as banality of Super16/Tri-Nations sinks in further.
thanks for link too :)
-
Jersey non-swap: mean eh!
+ kind of embarrassing (as was the recent story about Canterbury NZ incorporating successfully some high tech biochemical stuff in their jerseys, increasing performance of some other teams).On that note Richard, check out how Adidas have been claiming all of the Maori ancestry/mana kind of themes in their print and TV stuff. Isn't it a pretty highly-regarded value in Maori culture to be generous with gifts to respected other groups?
– – –
Internet sucks for most big sports events, especially if you are on a Mac. But can I say who cares for this event? C'mon guys, it's free all over TV3: you get a nice big screen, no bandwidth issues, and it's free. You just have to put up with that gormless potato-face Hamish McKay.
-
TV3: are there any other teams over there?
Sorry to be scratchy, I'm suffering withdrawals. Two hours without an update on Conrad Smith's hamstring. -
If you enjoyed Hamish's post as much as I did, you might like to read Tim de Lisle's postmortem on cricinfo.
I see now everyone's sentimental favourites, the hard-done-by Sri Lankans, are stranded in London following Tamil air attacks back home.
Thanks to Russell and everyone for the world cup blog :)
-
Nice one Gary, I was worried I might have to invent you! Pardon the cliché, but ideally in these tournaments, the journey can be better choreographed for enjoyment, and less emphasis put on the destination (and yes I'm talking to you also, rugby fans).
Can't really fault your suggestions, and am also a fan of CMJ.
Fewer team: yep. Twelve, for mine also.
Night games: absolutely. The ICC showed a lack of understanding here, yes a greaet cost to install lights at these Caribbean grounds, so to create a more intense tournament they should have included fewer teams (the format should fit the host country situation) since they couldn't have 2 day games 'cos of latitude + time of year + TV owning all of us.
A month or under in duration: who could argue with (although Roy Slaven was suggesting 6 months would be better).
They've gotta get rid of this 3-stage madness. Too confusing. Gotta attract fans, not repel them with one-sided games and obscure permutations. The best model is the harsh one (world cup football): a group stage then knockouts all the way. So I'm quite keen on CMJ's 2 groups of 6. Each team in group stage gets to play 5 games, then go home if they aren't right up there. In football you only get to play 3 if you are crap. But then my idea is to have a more thorough examination of the best teams: semis and final are each a best of three.
Then the cream has settled, the lights are on, it's one apiece going into the third final, etc. Then you get a more robust spectacle of the best teams fighting it out in a more hearty climax, a whereas right now you have this kind of premature ejaculation of 3 finals games following a mega-tantric gin-soaked sex session in the sun, complete with teams becoming bored with foreplay and falling asleep on the beach.
-
Cheers Paul. Same here.
Coverage: few public options this far south. Do others feel that in following the NZ cricket team they are involved in some kind of clandestine affair? I just returned from a weekend in central Southland, as you do, for the second time during the Super Eights. Nobody I've spoken to in Southland likes cricket.
Grant is planning to go to a dawn service. I think it would be kind of reverent to go along with the wee radio, to keep the Anzac spirit linked to something current. Imagine a trumpet, a 12-gun salute followed by a chorus of radios blaring Bryan Waddle.