ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
February is the shortest and least favourite month for Australian sporting fans and is a notorious sporting doldrum that sits between the end of the summer sport season and the beginning of the footy.
The Big Bash final is this weekend, leaving three weekends without any sport to watch until the NRL and AFL starts in March.
However, this year may be the last time we as a nation need to suffer the indignity of having no sport to watch.
There are growing calls for the Big Bash season to be extended into March, which would see a further 98 games being played. That would bring the total amount of games the champions would have to play up to 647.
That works out to be roughly one game starting every ten minutes for four months straight, says the league’s chairman.
“It would certainly be a boon for advertisers and fans,” says chairman Doug Linklater.
“At it would fill some dead air. February is always tough for TV. It’s a perfect storm, really. You have yuppies going sober for a month after caning themselves on the piss and the chimp since the Melbourne Cup. They’re sitting at home on the couch with nothing to watch. You could watch the WM Phoenix Open? But not everyone is into golf,”
“Formula One is testing in Bahrain. The WRC is in Sweden but once again, it’s a fairly niche sport that most people won’t entertain. Uh, the Sheffield Shield is still going so make sure to tune into that! The A-League is on, I think. Actually, I’ll have to check that. Mug’s game if you ask me. Imagine getting a bucket of sand thrown at you,”
“The only logical thing to do is extend the Big Bash. Maybe even have those Pro-Am cricket games we used to have back in the day? Like how Fatty Vautin took that catch. We need that again. Imagine Lance Morris coming around the wicket to Molly Meldrum with a stacked leg side. That’s what people want to see.”
More to come.
