The first ever WBBL has started. And no, it's not a wrestling promotion for hefty ladies.
It's actually T20 cricket for ladies … who generally aren't very hefty at all. I'm not historically a cricket fan, but I did quite get into the men's T20 tournament last year. It's generally a much faster and more interesting game than regular cricket, and the organisers go out of their way to foster a light-hearted "party" atmosphere. Anyway, the point is, I'm happy to see a women's tournament getting off the ground, and I hope people can get behind it … because from what I've seen, it's going to need all the support it can get …
First of all, of the fifty something games that are being played, only a piddling eight are being televised. "Well Alex", you might say, "television stations have to think like a business, and airing fifty something games sounds like an awfully big risk". Well yeah, I could see that being a valid argument if it wasn't for the massive amounts of shite they're running instead. Are you honestly telling me that advertisers would rather pay to peddle their wares during reruns of Murder She Wrote? Fucking what?
Okay, so let's accept that for whatever reason matches can't be broadcast on telly … why not stream them to the internet? "But Alex, streaming and hosting videos costs money too." Yes, but you don't have to do it yourself. There's at least half a dozen sites out there that are set up to handle this kind of thing—Youtube being the first that comes to mind. And since Cricket Australia, BBL, & every fucking team in the competition already have official Youtube accounts, why not use the fuckin' things? To give the knife a little extra twist, you can watch video highlights of the games. Yep, that's right folks; that means they're sending a fucking film crew out to film every fucking game, and then not letting any cunt watch them. Okay, so maybe they're desperate to get people to come and watch the games in person; couldn't they at least put the videos up a day or two later? For fuck sake, is not showing someone something really the best way to get them interested?
"So what sort of coverage do they have?" Well, basically, you can go to cricket.com.au and watch every game unfold on a live scoreboard while a Twitter feed scrolls up the right hand side. Fuckin' riveting, I know. You think they could at least have a couple of the girls do a live audio commentary while they're waiting to have a go at bat, or something. Ya know, even fuckin' Twitter has it's own live video streaming service now … just saying.
On a side note, as you watch the tweets fly by, profile pictures of grumpy looking players with their arms folded flash up to let you know who's currently batting and bowling.
Maybe they're all just pissed off about how poorly cropped their heads are. Didn't anybody who worked on this know how to feather a selection in Photoshop? Seriously though, whose bright idea was it to have every player pose like that? In this age of social media addiction, I have to imagine that most of these women know how to take a decent selfie; why not let them have fun with it? Part of me thinks that one girl must have got stuck with the generic silhouette because she refused to look at the cameraman like he was a "naughty little boy".
In any case, despite all my carping, there is an up side to all this. If you do want to go and watch a game in person, there's not much excuse not to. Most games are being played on the weekends, admittance to all non-televised matches is free, and in many cases, games are being played back-to-back, so if you can't make the morning session, just go in the afternoon. The only trouble you might have is finding a single comprehensive source of info on which games are being played where, and which ones are going to be on telly. That brings us to the point of this post …
I've just spent my afternoon cobbling together a web page that should make keeping track of the details a little bit easier. Currently, you can set it to display televised matches, Melbourne matches, all matches, etc; it has a timer which counts down to the next match in your selected category; matches that are in play will flash; and when a match begins, it should pump out about 70secs of the BBL theme music, just so you don't miss the start (probably only useful if you're waiting for a television broadcast to start, but it works with all categories).
I've only just thrown it together, and the testing process has been somewhat less than thorough, but so far, so good. If you want to check it out, feel free to let me know how it works for you. Match times should all be displayed in your local time, provided the clock in your browser is working right. A link to the page is here, and I'll also add a link to the right-hand column of the blog.
EDIT: And of course, almost instantly, the link to the audio file for the alarm is broken. Fuck it, I'll fix it later. I'm going to bed.
EDIT: And fixed. For now, at least. I should also mention that an asterisk next to a team name denotes that they are playing that game at home.
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