tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/cricket-australia-12537/articlesCricket Australia – The Conversation2023-05-22T08:21:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2060892023-05-22T08:21:36Z2023-05-22T08:21:36ZDutton condemns Voice as symptom of ‘identity politics’, as Burney says it will bring ‘better outcomes’<p>Opposition leader Peter Dutton has condemned the plan to enshrine a constitutional Voice to Parliament as “a symptom of the madness of identity politics which has infected the 21st century”. </p>
<p>As debate on the historic referendum legislation – introduced by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in March – began in the House of Representatives on Monday, Dutton claimed the Voice would “re-racialise our nation.” </p>
<p>“At a time when we need to unite the country, this prime minister’s proposal will permanently divide us by race,” Dutton said. </p>
<p>But Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney told the house: “Constitutional recognition through a Voice to Parliament is about giving Indigenous Australians a say in the matters that affect us.</p>
<p>"It means delivering structural change that empowers Indigenous communities. It means getting better advice, so we get better policies and better outcomes.” </p>
<p>The debate in the house is expected to continue all week and into next week, with about 70 speakers listed at the moment. When the vote comes, the votes of all MPs will be recorded, even if there is not a division called, because it is a referendum bill. The legislation’s passage is assured because the Liberals are not opposing it. </p>
<p>Dutton condemned the Voice as “regressive, not progressive”. </p>
<p>In the referendum, Australians “will be voting as to whether they should change, or to preserve, our Constitution – our nation’s rule book. </p>
<p>"It’s one of the most important decisions Australians will make in their lifetime. </p>
<p>"Because if Australians vote for change, then our nation, our democracy and their lives will be fundamentally altered – and, in this case, not for the better,” Dutton said. </p>
<p>“The Voice would be the most radical and consequential change to the way our democracy operates in our nation’s history.”</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/word-from-the-hill-government-should-set-date-for-voice-to-start-talking-199404">Word from The Hill: Government should set date for Voice to start talking</a>
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<p>Dutton said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wanted people to vote for the Voice “on a vibe”.</p>
<p>He said Albanese was “seeking to conflate two separate issues. One, the constitutional recognition, and two, enshrining the Voice in the Constitution. </p>
<p>"He wants to leverage the overwhelming public support for constitutional recognition to piggyback his poorly defined, untested and risk-ridden Canberra Voice model.” </p>
<p>What was needed was a “bottom-up approach”, Dutton said, rather than “another top-down one”. “We believe that local communities know best.”</p>
<p>Burney accused Dutton of putting into one speech “every bit of disinformation and misinformation and scare campaigns that exist in this debate”. </p>
<p>She said the Voice had been “a grassroots movement, the culmination of years of discussion, consultation and hard work by so many”. </p>
<p>Recognition through a Voice was about “making a practical difference”.</p>
<p>“The purpose of the Voice is to improve outcomes for our people,” she said. “It is symbolic – and practical.” </p>
<p>Burney said that after a successful referendum “we will work to link the national Voice in at a regional level, in a way that works for local communities”. </p>
<p>“Everyone agrees that the Voice needs to be connected to grassroots communities. </p>
<p>"It’s why regional voices that can plug into a national Voice are so important. And why the investment set by the former Liberal government for regional arrangements remains in the budget.” </p>
<p>Burney said the Voice was constitutionally sound and got the balance right, as the solicitor-general’s opinion made clear.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-albanese-should-not-try-to-make-the-voice-the-only-game-in-town-in-indigenous-affairs-204038">View from The Hill: Albanese should not try to make the Voice the only game in town in Indigenous affairs</a>
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<p>But this was “not enough for those hell-bent on dashing the hopes of a people. Not enough for those hell-bent on stoking division. </p>
<p>"It’s not enough for those trying to play politics with an issue that should be above partisan politics,” Burney said. </p>
<p>Liberal backbencher Bridget Archer, who is campaigning for the yes case, strongly rejected Dutton’s argument that the referendum was dividing the country by race.</p>
<p>“This referendum provides an incredible chance to begin righting so many wrongs and to bring about tangible differences in quality-of-life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I think most Australians would agree that the status quo isn’t acceptable and that we as a country must do better. Here is our chance.” </p>
<p>Speaking earlier on the report of the parliamentary inquiry on the Voice, Andrew Gee, who defected from the Nationals to the crossbench because of their opposition to the Voice, said while the committee had heard some differing legal opinions, “I found the evidence that the proposed words are legally sound to be highly persuasive”. </p>
<p>The evidence had showed it was “ridiculous to suggest that the Voice […] could or would imperil Anzac day, federal budgets or nuclear submarine contracts”. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Cricket Australia has thrown its weight behind the Voice, joining a number of other sporting bodies. Former NSW Premier Mike Baird, who chairs Cricket Australia, said: “The board is proud of cricket’s powerful and unique history with First Nations people”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As debate on the historic referendum legislation, Dutton claimed the Voice would ‘re-racialise our nation’.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1539442021-01-29T11:18:51Z2021-01-29T11:18:51ZCricket: Rishabh Pant’s historic innings against Australia can be explained with psychology<p>It’s probably too early to start comparing Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant to the great Brian Lara. But when Pant sealed India’s stunning recent win against Australia, it echoed other great final innings victories, particularly the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/1999/mar/31/cricket2">Lara-inspired West Indies win</a> against Australia in Barbados in 1999.</p>
<p>For India to successfully chase 328 runs on the final day was an amazing achievement, up there with the heroics of Ben Stokes at Headingley <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/aug/25/australia-ashes-england-third-test-ben-stokes-sensational">in 2019</a>. Stokes hit 135 runs to seal an unlikely win for England, including a final wicket partnership of 76 with Jack Leach who only scored a single run. In that knife-edge final period, just one mistake would have lost the game.</p>
<p>But it might just be topped by Lara’s 153 (not out) in 1999, because Lara was facing arguably the best ever bowling attack Australia has ever had in Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie and Stuart MacGill.</p>
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<p>Nevertheless, India’s 2-1 series win has been referred to as one of the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-9162295/India-achieve-one-Test-crickets-greatest-victories-against-Australia.html">greatest victories</a> in test cricket. After all, they seemed down and out after being bowled out for a paltry 36 in the first test. </p>
<p>Many pundits were predicting a 4-0 <a href="https://www.insidesport.co/ind-vs-aus-test-series-india-will-lose-4-0-predicts-4-big-test-cricketers-can-india-fight-back/">clean sweep</a> for Australia. So when it came to the final test in Brisbane – where Australia hadn’t lost for 33 years – the odds were stacked against them.</p>
<p>But there was something about the positive psychological approach of the Indian team – and Pant, who stood out. While the commentators suggested he might “hunker down” and bat cautiously for a draw, Pant exuded belief that the chase was possible.</p>
<h2>The mindset</h2>
<p>What connects the performances of Pant, Lara and Stokes? All were aggressive left-handed batsmen, each occurred with the match and the series on a knife edge and all were achieved against strong, higher-ranked opponents – seemingly in the face of overwhelming odds.</p>
<p>But that’s not all. All three demonstrated a certain mindset and a belief in their own ability to succeed, approaching their task in an aggressive and positive manner. One psychological explanation that might explain these successes is the theory of “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17509840902829331">challenge and threat</a>” states in athletes.</p>
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<p>Challenge and threat states occur when a player subconsciously weighs up the demands of the task at hand and evaluates them in line with their own personal resources to cope with the situation. When the demands outweigh the resources, a threat state emerges, with a player experiencing negative emotions that are likely to reduce performance. But when resources outweigh demands, players perceive their emotional responses as helpful to performance, and a challenge state emerges. </p>
<p>In other words, the demands faced by Pant and his teammates were huge. The strength of the opposition bowling attack, wickets being lost around him and the sheer scale of the 328 target (the previous record for a successful run chase in Brisbane was 236 in 1951).</p>
<p>Despite all these demands, Pant refused to play cautiously for a creditable draw. Instead, he rose to the challenge and attacked, believing in his ability to achieve an impossible win.</p>
<h2>Belief is everything</h2>
<p>Research has shown that the challenge state <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016787601830062X?casa_token=f9WnF3Ba8vYAAAAA:PIMHLWJnMRhUDL3zuYVWF0REkquMSwts-cvJbRfDejPx5s_iLZBo4BDpAxpN_Rdv87r0m2j99g">produces</a> better performance than the threat state. More specifically in cricket, a challenge state has been shown to produce better performance in <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsep/35/4/article-p387.xml">a batting task</a> than a threat state, in a group of elite academy cricketers. </p>
<p>This finding also extends to other sports such as <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-56865-001">football</a> and <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsep/35/6/article-p551.xml">golf</a> – as well as demonstrating benefits in other contexts, from <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00945.x">students</a> sitting exams to motor skill performance in <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-33333-001">surgical tasks</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17509840902829331">Research also suggests</a> that a challenge state brings about better performance because it improves aspects of cognitive function, such as decision making and attention.</p>
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<p>So what can a coach or psychologist do to help players enter high-pressure competitive situations in a state of challenge? First of all, the players need to believe they have <a href="http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/2878/">sufficient “resources”</a> to cope with the demands they face. Talk up their ability, skills and their accomplishments. Remind them of the times they played well and emphasise that the task should be attacked head on, rather than shied away from. </p>
<p>Psychological interventions may help too. For example, encouraging “physiological arousal” by viewing things which are often cited as signs of nervousness (increase in heart rate, sweaty palms or butterflies) <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26265345/">as good reactions</a>. They are good because they can help shift a “threatened” player into a challenge mindset.</p>
<p>Research has also identified the possible usefulness of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1469029219300263?casa_token=2h05eYLWQXYAAAAA:nDTKmVZuuqueJQlApy9L5GISbeDeSt-zAmVTAMsY3gih_6drxPXfp5UyXhoAVJg02Y50bNrGXkM">talking to yourself</a> and <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsep/32/3/article-p339.xml">imagery</a> interventions (when players effectively rehearse successful performance in their minds) to develop a challenge state. </p>
<p>These different approaches may help coax out good performances in players of all abilities. They also give us a glimpse at what may have been going on in Pant’s mind as he put together one of the all-time great innings. But there will always be that element of mystery when it comes to great sporting achievements. Sometimes, fans just have to shake their heads and wonder: “how did they do that?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, sportspeople need to enter a certain state of mind.Matthew Smith, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology, University of WinchesterMatt Jewiss, Lecturer in Skill Acquisition, University of HertfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1536332021-01-24T18:53:23Z2021-01-24T18:53:23ZIt’s not just cricket: Australia Day isn’t the commercial winner it used to be<p>Australia Day used to be an obvious and uncontroversial occasion for brands to endear themselves to Australian consumers. No longer.</p>
<p>There has been a decided shift over the past decade in commercial attitudes to January 26, acknowledging the problematic nature of the date’s choice as our day of national celebration to our First Nations. </p>
<p>Nothing demonstrates this more conclusively than Cricket Australia dropping references to Australia Day in its promotions of Big Bash League fixtures. </p>
<p>It’s a significant step. The BBL doesn’t need to appease inner-urban lefties. Its customer base is as middle-Australia as you can get. Nor can this be dismissed as corporate timidity, running for cover lest woke activists on social media make a fuss. Indeed the decision has likely excited more controversy than would have business as usual.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s not cricket,” declared Prime Minister Scott Morrison when <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/press-conference-yarwun-qld">asked about the move</a>. “I think Australian cricket fans would like to see Cricket Australia focus a lot more on cricket and a lot less on politics.” </p>
<p>News Corp’s outrage machine has been running even hotter. “The greatest betrayal of this country by a sporting body,” fumed <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6224736102001">Sky News host Chris Smith</a>.</p>
<p>Both Morrison and News Corp know something about appealing to core audiences. In this case, Cricket Australia’s attunement to its stakeholders is probably a better barometer of national feeling.</p>
<h2>Identity commerce</h2>
<p>Brands have never been shy about using national holidays for commercial gain.</p>
<p>Take Anzac Day – a date (on April 25) far less controversial than Australia Day, but one still fraught with sensitivities. </p>
<p>The Australian Football League has leveraged the “Anzac spirit” since 1995 through its Anzac Day match betweeen Collingwood and Essendon. Though not without its critics, the league has mostly managed to avoid running afoul of community sentiments in balancing commodification with commemoration.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379752/original/file-20210120-15-1jz3dls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379752/original/file-20210120-15-1jz3dls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379752/original/file-20210120-15-1jz3dls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379752/original/file-20210120-15-1jz3dls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379752/original/file-20210120-15-1jz3dls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379752/original/file-20210120-15-1jz3dls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379752/original/file-20210120-15-1jz3dls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Fresh in our memories.</span>
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<p>Other brands have not been so artful. Woolworths, for example. In 2015 the “Fresh Food People” ran an Anzac Day campaign involving an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/woolworths-picture-generator/6393044?nw=0">image generator</a> by which people could upload a photo of a relative who served in World War I “or a more recent war” to create a social media profile picture – overlaid with the phrase “Fresh in our Memories” and a Woolworths logo. </p>
<p>Woolworths executives were shocked to discover many people <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/woolworths-under-fire-for-anzac-promotion/6392848?nw=0">thought this distasteful</a>, and quickly <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/woolworths-under-fire-for-anzac-promotion/6392848?nw=0">dropped the promotion</a>.</p>
<p>But it generally takes a lot for brands to back away from commercialisation opportunities. Carlton & United Breweries also copped criticism in 2015 over its Victoria Bitter beer brand’s “Raise a Glass” campaign (running since 2009) but was unapologetic. </p>
<p>It defended <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/victoria-bitter-says-it-entitled-to-anzac-connection-as-target-pulls-some-items-from-shelves-20150417-1mn0vz">its association</a> with Anzac Day – citing a photo of Australian soldiers serving in Egypt during World War II who made a “VB” made out of Victoria Bitter beer bottles, and the <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/victoria-bitter-says-it-entitled-to-anzac-connection-as-target-pulls-some-items-from-shelves-20150417-1mn0vz">money it contributed</a> to the Returned & Services League and Legacy. </p>
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<img alt="A Victoria Bitter 'Raise a Glass' campaign advert." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380131/original/file-20210122-13-sn6d0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380131/original/file-20210122-13-sn6d0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380131/original/file-20210122-13-sn6d0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380131/original/file-20210122-13-sn6d0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380131/original/file-20210122-13-sn6d0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380131/original/file-20210122-13-sn6d0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380131/original/file-20210122-13-sn6d0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A Victoria Bitter ‘Raise a Glass’ campaign advert.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CUB</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>It did, however, <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/vb-scraps-anzac-day-raise-a-glass-campaign-after-seven-years-361742">drop the campaign in 2016</a>. And now, of course, CUB is owned by Japanese conglomerate Asahi, which makes such promotions somewhat awkward.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-be-consuming-more-than-just-patriotism-on-national-days-13655">Should we be consuming more than just patriotism on national days?</a>
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<h2>Cashing in on Australia Day</h2>
<p>This may explain why VB has clung to its Australia Day promotions.</p>
<p>It used January 25 in 2018 to launch “<a href="https://campaignbrief.com/victoria-bitter-celebrates-aus/">Knock Off Times</a>” campaign. Last year it marketed <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/victoria-bitter-thongs-the-ultimate-aussie-fashion-accessory-released-ahead-of-australia-day-613627">VB-branded thongs</a> – the “ultimate fashion accessory for the Australia Day long weekend”. </p>
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<img alt="Mercedes Benz's 2018 Australia Day advert." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380146/original/file-20210122-17-6bxbzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380146/original/file-20210122-17-6bxbzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380146/original/file-20210122-17-6bxbzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380146/original/file-20210122-17-6bxbzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380146/original/file-20210122-17-6bxbzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380146/original/file-20210122-17-6bxbzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380146/original/file-20210122-17-6bxbzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Mercedes Benz’s 2018 Australia Day advert.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/91915/Mercedes-Benz-Australia-Day">www.bestadsontv.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>The reason is simple: it’s a sales opportunity.</p>
<p>The national public holiday is a day to have a party with family and friends. Barbecues are popular. It’s a useful date for alcohol brands and others to time promotional campaigns that position themselves as dinky-di. </p>
<p>Coopers, now the largest Australian-owned brewery, has also used the day to promote its true-blue credentials. In 2017 it ran a national <a href="https://campaignbrief.com/coopers-celebrates-australia-d/">billboard campaign </a> with the slogan: “Australia Day. Australian-owned. Perfect.”</p>
<p>Even brands with tenuous connections to barbecues (or Australia) have gotten in on the act. A Mercedes-Benz promotion in 2018 featured sausages on a grill in the style of the German luxury car brand’s <a href="https://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/91915/Mercedes-Benz-Australia-Day">three-pointed badge</a></p>
<h2>Shifting sentiments</h2>
<p>But for brands attuned to middle Australia, waving the flag around Australia Day is losing its explicit appeal as community attitudes change. </p>
<p>Let’s not forget the date has never been universally embraced. Marking the date of arrival of the First Fleet at Port Jackson in 1788, January 26 was only nationally adopted as Australia Day in the mid-1930s. Given the date’s association with colonisation and dispossession, Indigenous Australians have lamented the choice ever since. In 1938 the first <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/day-of-mourning">Aboriginal Day of Mourning</a> and Protest was held in Sydney. Counter-commemorations of the day as Survival Day and Invasion Day are hardly new.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380148/original/file-20210122-23-mi3xni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The first Aboriginal Day of Mourning, in Sydney in 1938." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380148/original/file-20210122-23-mi3xni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380148/original/file-20210122-23-mi3xni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380148/original/file-20210122-23-mi3xni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380148/original/file-20210122-23-mi3xni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380148/original/file-20210122-23-mi3xni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380148/original/file-20210122-23-mi3xni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380148/original/file-20210122-23-mi3xni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first Aboriginal Day of Mourning, in Sydney in 1938.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/day-of-mourning">AIATSIS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Follow the lamb</h2>
<p>To appreciate how attitudes have shifted, think about lamb.</p>
<p>No advertiser has leveraged Australia Day more adroitly than Meat and Livestock Australia. It has pegged its advertising campaign promoting lamb as the “national meat” to the holiday for two decades, with former AFL player and “lambassador” Sam Kekovich fronting the campaign from 2005 to 2014. </p>
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<p>The longevity of the campaign’s timing with January 26 indicates the strategy’s <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/australia-day-get-in-or-get-out-of-the-way-561638">success</a>. </p>
<p>The campaigns have been consistently irreverent, appealing to the larrikan sense of humour. But in recent years they’ve also become far less “politically incorrect”. Gone are explicit appeals to nationalism and skewering of easy targets such as vegans. Instead their messages are about sharing and togetherness. </p>
<p>This year’s campaign, “Make lamb, not walls”, is a comical take on border closures. Notably it makes no mention of Australia Day.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aCIMYjqWxwA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Australian Lamb: Make Lamb, Not Walls.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Waning attachment</h2>
<p>Last week pollster Essential Research, which has been surveying Australians annually since 2015 about their feelings of Australia Day – and celebrating it on January 26 – <a href="https://essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport">published data</a> showing 53% of Australians regard it as just another public holiday (compared with 40% in January 2015).</p>
<p>Opposition to moving Australia Day to another day is still quite significant (35%) but, tellingly, just 17% of those aged 18-35 are opposed, compared with 55% of those 55 or older. Even among Coalition voters, more support a separate day than oppose it (49% to 45%).</p>
<p>The waning attachment of market-sensitive mainstream brands such as MLA to the day may be just as telling, in the same way betting markets are a useful adjunct to polls to accurately measure the popular mood.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-research-reveals-our-complex-attitudes-to-australia-day-110035">New research reveals our complex attitudes to Australia Day</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Reading the room</h2>
<p>Cricket Australia’s detachment may be the most significant of all barometers. It’s hard to think of a brand more acutely aligned with Australian identity. </p>
<p>True, not all the BBL’s franchise teams are on board. The commercial and marketing manager of the two Melbourne teams, Nick Cummins, is batting on with promoting this year’s January 26 fixtures at the MCG as Australia Day matches. It was, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/melbourne-bbl-teams-to-defy-ca-and-stick-with-australia-day-20210121-p56vxh.html">he said</a> “a complex issue that needs time and extensive engagement”.</p>
<p>But the writing is on the wall. As Indigenous cricketer Dan Christian put it, there comes a time to “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/blood-was-spilled-anthony-mundine-applauds-cricket-s-australia-day-move-20210122-p56w5u.html">to read the room</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It takes a lot for brands to back away from commercialisation opportunities. Cricket Australia’s backing away from Australia Day is significant.Sarah Duffy, Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney UniversityMichelle O'Shea, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney UniversityPatrick van Esch, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, AUT Business School, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1452462020-09-01T19:59:00Z2020-09-01T19:59:00ZHow COVID caused chaos for cricket – and may force a rethink of all sport broadcasting deals<p>Cricket Australia faces a <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/cricket/crickets-high-stakes-standoff-with-tv-networks-has-no-winners/news-story/ed9101a6d0dee4d49f5cceb93c6dd40d">summer of discontent</a>.</p>
<p>The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed financial and governance tensions and mistrust involving its players’ and state associations. However, those issues are a distant second to the current dissatisfaction and distrust that one of <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/hard-yards-ca-faces-fight-to-regain-broadcaster-trust-20200828-p55qey.html">the sport’s broadcasting partners</a> has with the quality and scheduling of the upcoming domestic playing season.</p>
<p>Channel Seven’s A$450 million concern with the restricted number of Australian international cricketers who might appear in this year’s BBL tournament now threatens to destabilise the sport’s principal source of revenue – the combined Foxtel and Seven six-year broadcasting deal signed in 2018 and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/battle-for-survival-broadcasters-on-brink-but-cricket-australia-digs-in-on-tv-rights-20200427-p54nof.html">worth A$1.18 billion</a> over its six-year term.</p>
<h2>COVID causes chaos</h2>
<p>In March, it had all looked so different. On International Women’s Day 2020, the MCG hosted the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-09/t20-world-cup-final-victory-for-womens-cricket-and-australia/12037732">ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final</a>. Played in front of 86,000 people, Australia’s victory over India was a suitable end to a highly successful tournament. Within a week sport in Melbourne – including the first Formula 1 race of the year – and indeed globally had to shut down due to the pandemic.</p>
<p>Of all the major sports in Australia, cricket seemed the best equipped to survive the coronavirus lockdown. By then, 90% of the season had been completed. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-08/mens-twenty20-world-cup-pushed-back-to-2022/12537500">men’s T20 World Cup tournament</a>, to be hosted by Australia, was not scheduled until October, a month that marked the second anniversary of the appointment of the then CEO of Cricket Australia (CA), Kevin Roberts.</p>
<p>And yet the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-27/coronavirus-concerns-raised-about-australian-cricket-future/12287088">following month</a> 80% of staff at Cricket Australia were stood down. The CEO was indicating that by August cricket would, to the amazement of many within the sport, have <a href="https://www.afr.com/rear-window/kevin-roberts-engineers-cricket-australia-crisis-20200419-p54l6q">severe cashflow problems</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-2023-will-be-a-massive-boost-for-womens-sport-but-does-it-make-financial-sense-140445">World Cup 2023 will be a massive boost for women's sport – but does it make financial sense?</a>
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</em>
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<p>By June it was clear the men’s T20 World Cup would have to be postponed and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-16/kevin-roberts-showy-and-comical-as-cricket-australia-ceo/12357986">Roberts was gone</a>. He was replaced on an interim basis by Nick Hockley, then the CEO of the T20 World Cup local organising committee who had overseen the successful women’s T20 World Cup earlier in the year.</p>
<p>The previous Cricket Australia CEO, James Sutherland, had been in the job for 17 years. In contrast, 2020 was a precarious year to be a CEO in Australian sport – the CEOs of both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/apr/23/raelene-castle-steps-down-as-ceo-of-rugby-australia#:%7E:text=The%20embattled%20Rugby%20Australia%20chief,the%20support%20of%20the%20board.&text=In%20a%20statement%20provided%20to,RA%20needed%20%E2%80%9Cclear%20air%E2%80%9D.">Rugby Australia</a> (RA) and the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-20/nrl-ceo-todd-greenberg-stands-down-immediately/12165926">National Rugby League</a> (NRL) also departed their jobs in April.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A scrum during an NRL match between the Melbourne Storm and Manly Sea Eagles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355689/original/file-20200901-18-nd74tv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355689/original/file-20200901-18-nd74tv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355689/original/file-20200901-18-nd74tv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355689/original/file-20200901-18-nd74tv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355689/original/file-20200901-18-nd74tv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355689/original/file-20200901-18-nd74tv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355689/original/file-20200901-18-nd74tv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">2020 has been a precarious year for many sporting codes, including NRL.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Peled/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reflecting on the year’s instability, Sutherland commented <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/after-running-cricket-for-17-years-james-sutherland-has-a-new-mission-20200612-p5520f.html">empathetically</a> that when you’re a sports administrator, you can deal with anything but uncertainty.</p>
<p>And for all Australian sports, 2020 has brought nothing but uncertainty to their finances, competition scheduling and administration.</p>
<h2>Too much riding on broadcast deals</h2>
<p>However, one point that has been constant in the operation of elite professional sport in Australia and elsewhere is how dependent their revenues are on TV broadcasting deals. The AFL’s revenue in 2019 was just shy of A$800 million, half of which related to broadcasting and <a href="https://resources.afl.com.au/afl/document/2020/03/18/925fd047-a9b6-4f7d-8046-138a56ba36f4/2019-AFL-Annual-Report.pdf">media</a>. Broadcasting accounted for 61% of the NRL’s total <a href="https://www.nrl.com/siteassets/2020/nrl_annualreport_2019_hr.pdf">revenue</a> last year.</p>
<p>The lengths to which the AFL and the NRL have gone to ensure their seasons go ahead – from biosecurity hubs and lobbying state and federal governments for border exemptions, to pay cuts for players and staff – must be seen in the context of their dependency on TV money.</p>
<p>In April, the equation for the AFL and NRL, as it was for Rugby Australia and the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) whose schedules were also affected, was simple: in the absence of games, there would be no obligation on broadcasters to honour their TV rights deals. This meant up to two-thirds of the sport’s revenue would disappear overnight.</p>
<p>In terms of contract law, broadcasters hinted at provisions in the agreements with sports such as <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/seven-steps-up-fight-as-cricket-australia-triggers-act-of-god-clause-20200830-p55qnb.html"><em>force majeure</em> clauses</a> (unforeseeable circumstances), acts of God and other principles of contract law, such as the <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/coronavirus-sport-the-law-of-frustration-and-force-majeure">doctrine of frustration</a>.</p>
<p>Broadcasters <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/a-league-looking-for-new-broadcast-partner-with-fox-sports-set-to-walk-20200330-p54fbc.html">argued</a> these would allow them to walk away from existing deals given that, for reasons outside both parties’ control, the playing season could not go ahead as scheduled, if at all.</p>
<p>Even as sports bodies desperately gave them assurances a season would go ahead, broadcasters remained <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nine-nrl-on-brink-of-deal-to-seal-1-9-billion-broadcast-bonanza-20200512-p54scv.html">adamant</a> that the product they had originally paid for was now of such a different variety that the original broadcasting deal would have to be stood down and terms and conditions renegotiated.</p>
<p>Clearly, it was in the interest of the above sports bodies to enter into such negotiations. They did so <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/may/20/nrl-broadcast-deal-with-nine-and-fox#:%7E:text=The%20NRL%20is%20powering%20towards,required%20from%20both%20their%20boards.">with alacrity</a> and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-secures-revised-broadcast-deal-20200611-p551nc.html">some success</a>. It must also be noted that an absence of live TV would likely have had an impact on what has fast become the second-most-important source of review for Australian sport – <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/gambling-s-share-of-nrl-revenue-could-well-double-that-brings-power-20200515-p54tbg.html">gambling</a>.</p>
<p>For the broadcasters, as the playing seasons in the AFL, NRL and other codes were about to begin, they were acutely aware that without sport a significant advertising hole would be left in their schedules for the next six months. Moreover, given the pandemic had halted production of other advertising-rich programs such as reality TV, and the postponement of key international events such as the Olympics would exacerbate the scarcity of live sport on the schedules, it was also in the interest of broadcasters not to walk away from such deals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355694/original/file-20200901-16-myj6lq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355694/original/file-20200901-16-myj6lq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355694/original/file-20200901-16-myj6lq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355694/original/file-20200901-16-myj6lq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355694/original/file-20200901-16-myj6lq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355694/original/file-20200901-16-myj6lq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355694/original/file-20200901-16-myj6lq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics added further pain for broadcasters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugene Hoshiko/AP/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lessons from a difficult year</h2>
<p>The lessons from all of this are that, despite its protestations, it seems inevitable Cricket Australia will also have to renegotiate its broadcasting deal with Seven. The reality for modern sports organisations is that, while they rightly lament the absence of spectators, a dearth of subscribers does much greater commercial damage.</p>
<p>Cricket Australia faces a slightly trickier situation than the AFL, NRL and others faced earlier in the year. A key <a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/29757796/train-wreck-channel-seven-launches-attack-cricket-australia,-threatens-terminate-contract">concern for the domestic broadcasters</a> is that CA has been frustratingly slow in confirming its summer schedule. </p>
<p>Moreover, in renegotiating with other sports, there was never an issue that the best players available domestically in those sports would not play. Given the international demands and scheduling in cricket – notably Test matches against India and Afghanistan – it seems CA cannot guarantee the availability of the quality of player in competitions such as the BBL that the broadcasters feel their money deserves.</p>
<p>While matters now seem tense between CA and its broadcasting partners, the current standoff is probably all just part of the preening process. Already, <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/big-cash-league-cricket-australia-s-bid-to-draw-world-s-best-to-bbl-20200831-p55r2h.html">CA has responded</a> by indicating it will be more aggressive in its recruitment of marquee international players for the BBL. It has also raised the salary cap for those on BBL rosters. A “relaunched” BBL in its tenth year and over the summer holiday period would be an attractive proposition.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355699/original/file-20200901-16-ll4w19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355699/original/file-20200901-16-ll4w19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355699/original/file-20200901-16-ll4w19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355699/original/file-20200901-16-ll4w19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355699/original/file-20200901-16-ll4w19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355699/original/file-20200901-16-ll4w19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355699/original/file-20200901-16-ll4w19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A relaunched Big Bash League (BBL) this coming summer could be an attractive proposition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Barbour/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the interim chief of CA, who is in an unenviable position, contemplates the inevitable phone call with the broadcaster, it might be advisable for him first to call the CEOs of the other sports organisation that have been recently through this process. The sport’s former, long-time boss Sutherland, recently installed as the CEO of Golf Australia, would also be worth talking to. Their experience could be invaluable for cricket in the weeks ahead.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-fall-out-from-postponing-the-olympics-may-not-be-as-bad-as-we-think-134531">Why the fall-out from postponing the Olympics may not be as bad as we think</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Finally, an interesting subtext to all of this is the emerging view that sports rights are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-15/the-economics-of-tv-sport/9654004">overvalued</a> and the future of such deals lies elsewhere in streaming services and on other digital, even in-house <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/why-sports-rights-have-passed-their-peak-20200429-p54oe2">platforms</a>.</p>
<p>But that is a matter for the future. For now, cricket powerbrokers should heed the advice of one of sport’s most colourful dealmakers, the boxing promoter Don King, who once said that, in sports contracts, you never get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pandemic has caused massive disruption to cricket in Australia and revealed just how dependent many sporting organisations are on their broadcast deals.Jack Anderson, Professor of Sports Law, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1216172019-08-08T07:09:37Z2019-08-08T07:09:37ZCricket Australia’s new gender rules give much-needed clarity to athletes and clubs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287322/original/file-20190808-144862-1vf0fq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4913%2C3275&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cricket Australia has committed to review the policy annually.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cricket Australia has made a significant contribution to gender diversity policy by producing a very detailed <a href="https://www.cricketaustralia.com.au/media/media-releases/cricket-australia-takes-action-to-include-transgender-and-gender-diverse-people/2019-08-08">set of rules</a> for elite-level cricket, and guidelines for community cricket. </p>
<p>They provide much needed clarity around what’s expected of transgender and gender diverse athletes, and what’s being asked of cricket clubs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/elite-sport-is-becoming-a-platform-to-target-the-trans-community-113347">Elite sport is becoming a platform to target the trans community</a>
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<p>On a global scale, including transgender and gender diverse athletes into sport is a <a href="https://www.transathlete.com/policies-by-organization">work in progress</a>. So far, in top-level competitions, only the female category has been a cause for debate, stemming from the conclusion that male athletes have <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y2ylnog2">physical advantages</a> over female athletes in terms of speed, strength and physique. </p>
<p>For men transitioning to women (M2F), sports need assurance that this competitive advantage has been suitably reduced by surgical transition or taking hormones. </p>
<p>In any case, transgender and gender diverse people face social acceptance challenges, to put it mildly. Cricket Australia, along with other Australian sports bodies who are starting to catch on, is providing unprecedented opportunities for people who, while “different”, can fit in and feel welcomed. </p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://www.cricket.com.au/news/alex-blackwell-cricket-australia-inclusion-policy-transgender-diverse-people/2019-08-08">Erica James</a>, a cricketer who returned to the sport as a M2F player after 27 years, shows how inclusive sport clubs can boost mental health and self-esteem, as the video below shows.</p>
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<h2>A policy drawn from international guidelines</h2>
<p>In terms of elite-level competition, Cricket Australia has followed the International Cricket Council’s <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yy3m563h">Gender Recognition Policy</a> from 2017, which was developed to accommodate transgender and gender diverse athletes in international tournaments or series. </p>
<p>From a biological perspective, the International Cricket Council drew on the International Olympic Committee’s <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y6qlgjp8">Transgender Guidelines</a>. The IOC’s position is that a M2F athlete who aspires to enter the women’s category of sport must:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>demonstrate that her total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nmol/L [Nanomoles Per Litre] for at least 12 months prior to her first competition (with the requirement for any longer period to be based on a confidential case-by-case evaluation).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/by-excluding-hannah-mouncey-the-afls-inclusion-policy-has-failed-a-key-test-85900">By excluding Hannah Mouncey, the AFL's inclusion policy has failed a key test</a>
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<p>This it what Cricket Australia has put in place. But the International Olympic Committee’s guidelines <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/transgender-athletes-face-tougher-olympic-rules/news-story/04adcdf72681bdaf2dc7545e1e3e1764">may change</a> before the 2020 Olympics. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, there is currently <a href="https://medium.com/@Antonia_Lee/the-ioc-and-transgender-participation-in-their-own-words-4a1f95416d9d">robust debate</a>, most notably in the UK, about the efficacy of the International Olympic Committee’s policy position. </p>
<p>Critics are underwhelmed by the International Olympic Committee’s lack of detail about how – from a scientific perspective – the transition requirements meet this <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y6qlgjp8">IOC mantra</a>: </p>
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<p>The overriding sporting objective is and remains the guarantee of fair competition.</p>
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<p>The problem is lack of detail. It’s not clear what evidence the policy is based upon. It may be scientifically sound, but it’s not in the public domain. </p>
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<h2>Legal frameworks around inclusion</h2>
<p>In terms of high-performance sport, Cricket Australia’s transgender and gender diverse policy is, to some extent, constrained by what relevant international bodies put in place. </p>
<p>Cricket Australia has committed to review the policy annually. This means it can respond to any substantive changes to international sport, and fine-tune for the Australian context. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-folaus-comments-remind-us-homophobia-and-transphobia-are-ever-present-in-australian-sport-94822">Israel Folau's comments remind us homophobia and transphobia are ever present in Australian sport</a>
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<p>Importantly, Cricket Australia’s transgender and gender diverse framework is broadly consistent with recently released <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/lgbti/publications/guidelines-inclusion-transgender-and-gender-diverse-people-sport-2019">guidelines</a> produced by the Australian Human Rights Commission and Sport Australia. </p>
<p>This guide provides critical insights into the legal frameworks around inclusion and discrimination, including exemptions relating to strength, stamina and physique. </p>
<p>Assuming due diligence around these obligations, Australian sports are entitled to form specific rules that suit their own competitive environment. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-afls-gender-diversity-policy-remains-an-apprehensive-work-in-progress-102904">AFL</a>, for instance, has independently adopted more stringent requirements than Cricket Australia. For M2F players in elite women’s competition, their diversity policy requires a maximum of 5 nmol/L of testosterone for a minimum of a two-year transition period.</p>
<h2>The logistics at a community club level</h2>
<p>In terms of uptake of players, Cricket Australia’s new <a href="https://www.cricketaustralia.com.au/media/media-releases/cricket-australia-takes-action-to-include-transgender-and-gender-diverse-people/2019-08-08">policy</a> is likely to resonate most at the recreational level of sport. As the policy states:</p>
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<p>Any transgender or gender diverse person is eligible to play cricket at a community level. A player is required to nominate their gender identity at the time of registration, demonstrating a commitment that their gender identity is consistent across other aspects of everyday life.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-sport-hasnt-made-much-progress-on-lgbti-rights-since-the-sochi-olympics-91091">Why sport hasn't made much progress on LGBTI+ rights since the Sochi Olympics</a>
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<p>This is encouraging to people whose birth sex is different to their gender identity: they can find a place in grassroots cricket. But Cricket Australia is relying on both participants and clubs to manage that process with decorum. </p>
<p>M2F cricketers, like other athletes, need to be positioned in teams at a level that’s <a href="https://www.cricketaustralia.com.au/media/media-releases/cricket-australia-takes-action-to-include-transgender-and-gender-diverse-people/2019-08-08">appropriate to their ability</a>. </p>
<p>Should the performance of a M2F player be disproportionate to their peers in physical prowess (not merely technique), umpires have the capacity to moderate, especially if there are safety issues (which can be found across different levels of cricket). </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hostility-to-elite-trans-athletes-is-having-a-negative-impact-on-participation-in-everyday-sport-113296">Hostility to elite trans athletes is having a negative impact on participation in everyday sport</a>
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<p>More commonly, though, both umpires and clubs will be asked to monitor performance “mismatches” – something they do as a matter of course in community cricket.</p>
<p>Finally, there are logistical challenges. A common initiative Cricket Australia recommends is for clubs to have a gender-neutral bathroom. Most already have facilities for the disabled, so that process is not new. </p>
<p>Another option some transgender and gender diverse athletes look forward to is a capacity to shower privately. </p>
<p>Reconfiguring existing facilities, with provisions for modesty, may be all that’s needed. And such a renovation could well be in demand by other groups, such as women from cultural backgrounds where bodily privacy is a default expectation. </p>
<p>Funding to allow for these changes would need to be sought, in the usual manner, via grants from local councils, Sport Australia, or indeed Cricket Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121617/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Adair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cricket Australia is providing opportunities for people who, while ‘different’, can fit in and feel welcomed.Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1058432018-10-31T18:54:04Z2018-10-31T18:54:04ZCricket Australia’s culture problem is it still doesn’t think fans are stakeholders in the game<p>The most telling part of the long-awaited review into the rotten culture of elite Australian cricket is what it doesn’t say. Or more correctly, what it does say, but what the establishment that owns and controls professional cricket won’t let us read.</p>
<p>Even a chunk of the executive summary of the report is redacted, like state secrets from a confidential intelligence dossier.</p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243134/original/file-20181031-76411-11mubmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243134/original/file-20181031-76411-11mubmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243134/original/file-20181031-76411-11mubmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=127&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243134/original/file-20181031-76411-11mubmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=127&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243134/original/file-20181031-76411-11mubmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=127&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243134/original/file-20181031-76411-11mubmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243134/original/file-20181031-76411-11mubmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243134/original/file-20181031-76411-11mubmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">First page of the executive summary of the report Australian Cricket: A Matter of Balance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.cricketaustralia.com.au/media/media-releases/cricket-australia-releases-player-and-independent-organisational-reviews/2018-10-29">Cricket Australia</a></span>
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<p>A further 22 other pages in the report also have redacted material, in some parts quite extensive. There may be other reasons for the dozens of redactions, but it’s hard not to conclude the principle motivation is that some criticisms of Cricket Australia, and of specific individuals, are just too close to the bone.</p>
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<span class="caption">Second page of the executive summary of the report Australian Cricket: A Matter of Balance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.cricketaustralia.com.au/media/media-releases/cricket-australia-releases-player-and-independent-organisational-reviews/2018-10-29">Cricket Australia</a></span>
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<p>The redactions are at odds with the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/cricket-australia-chairman-david-peever-discusses/10444160">“complete transparency”</a> talked about by Cricket Australia chairman David Peever.</p>
<p>They are emblematic of Cricket Australia’s lack of accountability to the game’s most important stakeholders – the cricketing public. </p>
<h2>A very public scandal</h2>
<p>The report stems from the ball-tampering scandal in March 2018, when the leaders of the Australian men’s cricket team were involved in a brazen attempt to cheat during a match with South Africa. Three players, including captain Steve Smith and vice-captain Dave Warner, were given unprecedented 12-month suspensions. </p>
<p>Cricket Australia then commissioned the respected <a href="http://www.ethics.org.au/home">Ethics Centre</a> to conduct an independent review covering “cultural, organisational and/or governance issues” related to cricket’s administration.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-crickets-wake-up-call-on-a-culture-that-has-cost-it-dearly-105855">Australian cricket's wake-up call on a culture that has cost it dearly</a>
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<p>The investigation has spanned the entire organisation (including the member state associations that are essentially the shareholders of Cricket Australia). It has looked at selection processes, values, leadership and the financial arrangements involving players, sponsors and broadcasters. </p>
<h2>Sins of omission</h2>
<p>The report says the leadership of Cricket Australia should accept responsibility for several failures. We don’t know what the first failure is, because it has been redacted. But the second is an “inadvertent (but foreseeable) failure to create and support a culture in which the will-to-win was balanced by an equal commitment to moral courage and ethical restraint”.</p>
<p>The review does – as far as we can tell – save Cricket Australia from blame for promoting a “win at all costs” culture. But it levels a charge almost as serious.</p>
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<blockquote>
<p>In our opinion, CA’s fault is not that it established a culture of ‘win at all costs’. Rather, it made the fateful mistake of enacting a program that would lead to ‘winning without counting the costs’.</p>
<p>It is this approach that has led, inadvertently, to the situation in which cricket finds itself today – for good and for ill.</p>
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<h2>A series of unfortunate events</h2>
<p>Several significant and controversial decisions were made in the weeks prior to the report’s delayed release. After a “global search”, the board appointed Cricket Australia insider Kevin Roberts to replace retiring chief executive James Sutherland. It then re-appointed long-time board chairman David Peever for a further three-year term.</p>
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<p>These decisions suggest Cricket Australia’s highest echelons just aren’t taking responsibility. Doesn’t the buck stop with the chairman and board? How can a significant review finding cultural problems across the entire structure not lead to any meaningful changes in its leadership and governance?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cricket-australias-culture-sore-captains-of-the-finance-industry-should-take-note-104491">Cricket Australia's culture sore: captains of the finance industry should take note</a>
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<h2>Notable rejections</h2>
<p>Cricket Australia says it will adopt most of the independent review’s 42 recommendations. It accepts “sin bin” measures for cricketer bad behaviour, that annual cricketer awards take into account sportsmanship and character, establishing an ethics commission to strengthen accountability, and to finally include sledging in an anti-harassment code.</p>
<p>There are, however, two notable rejections. </p>
<p>One is that, “subject to issues of confidentiality (commercial and otherwise)” the board publish the minutes of its meetings, as is done by the Board for Control of Cricket in India. Another cross marked here against transparency.</p>
<h2>Operating in a parallel universe</h2>
<p>All this points to a critical problem with Cricket Australia’s governance and leadership. </p>
<p>On page 13, the report includes a definition of cricket’s stakeholders: “All parties who hold a stake in the success of CA and Cricket-in-Australia (the general public was not included in the scope for research).” </p>
<p>This seems to sum up Cricket Australia’s attitude perfectly: it pays lip service to the fans, but in practice treats them as a cash cow, not real stakeholders. </p>
<p>Cricket is a sporting monopoly, like other sporting codes. Cricket Australia is a company limited by guarantee, and owned by the state and territory associations. It controls the game as a lucrative business. The general public might love the game, but we have no ownership or direct influence over it. </p>
<p>The only means we might have to effect meaningful reform is by voting with our feet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105843/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David R. Gallagher is affiliated with the Capital Markets Co-operative Research Centre. </span></em></p>Cricket Australia promised to throw open the windows. But it is still keeping secrets behind closed doors.David R. Gallagher, Malcolm Broomhead Chair in Finance, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1058552018-10-30T02:11:23Z2018-10-30T02:11:23ZAustralian cricket’s wake-up call on a culture that has cost it dearly<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242848/original/file-20181029-76408-kbfqrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An independent report has found that Australian cricket's culture of win-at-all-costs has come at a high price.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dean Lewins</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the face of it, there is much to celebrate about Australian cricket right now. The sport has money to burn thanks to recent large <a href="https://www.cricket.com.au/news/cricket-australia-broadcast-deal-media-channel-seven-fox-sports-tv-guide-how-watch-bbl-television/2018-04-13">pay-TV deals</a>, the Big Bash has <a href="https://tvtonight.com.au/2018/02/big-bash-league-ends-on-a-high.html">strong TV ratings</a>; the women’s cricket team is one of the most successful and highly regarded Australian sporting teams. There has been a surge in junior participation, and many Australians still regard it as our national sport – it is certainly the dominant sport of the summer.</p>
<p>By contrast, cricket in the media is lurching from one crisis to another, with the fallout from the now-infamous <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-25/how-cricket-ball-tampering-incident-unfolded/9584618">ball-tampering episode</a> still reverberating. Yesterday, the sport was dealt another blow. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.cricket.com.au/news/cricket-australia-cultural-review-published-recommendations-ethics-players-south-africa-smith-warner/2018-10-29">independent review</a> of Cricket Australia’s culture was released, concluding that “winning without counting the costs” was largely responsible for the recent ball-tampering scandal and sledging – the on-field verbal abuse and taunting – that has been an entrenched habit of the Australian team for decades.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/just-not-cricket-why-ball-tampering-is-cheating-93935">Just not cricket: why ball tampering is cheating</a>
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<p>The review found the sport was riddled with cultural problems that exerted so much exerted pressure to win that it manifested in cheating and sledging, covertly sanctioned by the administrators. With 42 recommendations, it is clear Cricket Australia needs to change. </p>
<p>The biggest cultural issue for the sport at the moment is sledging, and one of the recommendations calls for cricket’s <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=cricket+anti+harrassment+code&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ablink%20pls">anti-harrassment code</a> to address abusive behaviour. </p>
<p>While niggling a player might have been an acceptable part of the game, sledging has reached a point where a strict code of ethics needs to be drawn up and adhered to. While this may take away some of the unique nature of the sport, in the long run it will bring the focus back to the play.</p>
<p>Sledging matters because it is a type of cheating. The rise in cheating, whether it be via match-fixing or sledging, is linked to the rise in commercialisation and gambling in sport.</p>
<p>Australian cricket has formed commercial relationships with major sport betting agencies and <a href="https://www.cricketaustralia.com.au/about/partners/commercial">an official partnership</a> with <a href="https://www.bet365.com.au/?affiliate=365_795668#/HO/">Bet365</a>. There have been numerous accusations regarding <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/cricketsmatchfixers/">international match-fixers</a>. And the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/australia-in-south-africa/ball-tampering-scandal-full-text-of-cricket-australia-statement/articleshow/63515651.cms">ball-tampering scandal</a> has confirmed that Australians no longer hold the moral high ground. </p>
<p>The relentless pressure to win has infected the sport at all levels. Sledging is but one of the symptoms.</p>
<p>Why does this matter so much to Australians? A clue may lie in what else is going on: a recent bank inquiry, fears related to immigration, contempt for politicians, growing distrust of public institutions, poor performance and declines in international educational testing, wage stagnation and declines (despite a world record run on economic growth), concern over high house prices and power bills. In 2018, Australians have much to be anxious and angry about.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-cricketers-banned-for-ball-tampering-ever-regain-their-hero-status-its-happened-before-94096">Can the cricketers banned for ball tampering ever regain their hero status? It's happened before</a>
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<p>Cricket has always been held above everyday concerns, and has been a source of national pride and a salve in times of fear. Throughout the history of colonial Australia, cricket has been a source of inspiration, an institution that has provided strong links to our communities (school, geographical district, state and territories) and helped define Australian identity.</p>
<p>Modern Australians’ first organised sport in both schools and the community setting was cricket. Our first sporting wins against the “home country” – England – were in cricket Test matches. Cricket was responsible for giving us legitimacy.</p>
<p>Our best cricketers became heroes. Generations looked upon Don Bradman, Dennis Lillee, Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor as role models. It was the hegemonic sport and the cricketers best represented what Australian masculinity was about. If you played the sport, you played in a tough way (even though it is not a contact sport) within the highly revered rules; cricket could help you learn that gracious defeat is as admirable as victory.</p>
<p>Also, especially from about 1990 onwards, the Australian men’s team was outstanding. They won Test series and one-dayers with continued all-round brilliance, producing some of the greatest players the game has ever seen.</p>
<p>But, in the past few years, Australian cricket’s legitimacy has waned. Many of us who love the sport and all it represents have felt disillusioned by recent events at the elite level. This was confirmed to us yesterday with the report – which, thankfully, did not sugar-coat the diagnosis.</p>
<p>So what is the cure? A revised, strict and well-policed ethical code for staff and players will not be enough. Cricket needs to work with commercial partners, or abandon them if they can’t meet high ethical standards too.</p>
<p>Commercial and betting agendas create pressures to cheat, yet <a href="https://www.ausport.gov.au/nationalsportplan/home/second_row_content/have_a_say2/Sport_2030_-_National_Sport_Plan_-_2018.pdf">Sport 2030</a>, our national plan for sport, under the banner “strengthening the sector’s integrity” suggests:</p>
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<p>organisations… adopt a more efficient, model of governance which can best position sports to be able to drive greater commercial outcomes, reduce reliance on funding, increase autonomy and support innovation.</p>
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<p>And there is the dilemma.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105855/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Georgakis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While revered as heroes by their fans, Australia’s cricketers have played hard – too hard – for too long, and now the sport must begin the difficult task of self-reflection and change.Steve Georgakis, Senior Lecturer of Pedagogy and Sports Studies, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1008882018-08-02T01:28:21Z2018-08-02T01:28:21ZAngela Williamson’s sacking shows gulf between Cricket Australia’s words and deeds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230321/original/file-20180801-136649-2alzmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Angela Williamson was sacked by Cricket Australia because of tweets criticising Tasmanian government policy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter/Peter Mathew</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cricket Australia’s dismissal of a top Tasmanian cricketing official for “making offensive comments” has received enormous media attention <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/cricket-australia-sacks-worker-over-series-of-tweets-about-abortion-20180729-p4zuar.html">in Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-45001941">overseas</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/cricket-australia-sacks-worker-over-series-of-tweets-about-abortion-20180729-p4zuar.html">In its letter</a> to terminate the employment of Public Policy and Government Relations Manager Angela Williamson, Cricket Australia cites her social media criticism of the state government’s abortion and environmental policies. The body said it “has no issue with you expressing your political beliefs”. But the “disparaging tone” of her “inappropriate” tweets had caused a loss of employer confidence in her, making her position “untenable”.</p>
<p>The letter said tweets like the “most irresponsible, gutless & reckless delivery in parly [sic] ever” made it impossible for Williamson to “maintain a positive and productive relationship with the Tasmanian Government”. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-restricting-social-media-is-not-a-solution-to-dangerous-behaviours-in-india-99858">Why restricting social media is not a solution to dangerous behaviours in India</a>
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<p>This case raises many troubling questions about the relationship between private opinions and work-based expectations, employer social media policies and the persistently masculinist culture of sport organisations.</p>
<h2>Are you entitled to your opinion?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-au/Work%27s+Intimacy-p-9780745650289">erosion of the boundaries</a> between private and work spheres is well established. The pervasive use of mobile communication technology means that workers are now readily contactable outside the formal workplace.</p>
<p>Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are used both for work and non-work purposes in the same digital space, just as home offices and coffee shops can be places for both work and play.</p>
<p>When Williamson made her displeasure with the state government public on matters unrelated to her work, her political targets immediately connected them to her workplace. This was possible because she, like many others in the private and public sectors, works in the persuasion business.</p>
<p>Her job was essentially to persuade government – ironically, one <a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/news-story/699bf03b0236ef1e466a199c3743dc20">for which</a> she had previously worked - to make decisions favourable to her employer.</p>
<p>Williamson’s public criticism of the Tasmanian government, even though it had nothing to do with the sport portfolio, was interpreted by her employer as an irretrievable breakdown in a working relationship. Such are the perils of social media “opinion creep”, where everything can be notionally viewed as work-related. What can be said and where becomes a matter of employment policy.</p>
<h2>Employer social media policies</h2>
<p>With employees holding the means of instant mass communication, my colleague and I <a href="http://www.cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/v9/a16/cu17v9a16.pdf">conducted research</a> into a contact zone in which workers are actively encouraged to provide informed opinions – the public university. The very existence of The Conversation can be attributed to this drive to turn the university into a giant newsroom.</p>
<p>We examined every university public communication policy in Australia that we could find, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/praise-the-brand-and-pass-the-gag/news-story/99b2aee3c798c046b309bb774703b6f1">noting how</a> the drive to raise university profiles and demonstrate public relevance was tempered by anxiety about bringing the university into disrepute and damaging its brand.</p>
<p>Once, mainstream media organisations were gatekeepers of academic public communication. But the advent of social media means they can be instantly bypassed. Nervous universities in competitive education markets now only allow academics to declare their affiliations in demonstrated areas of expertise.</p>
<p>This means that for many organisations and their employees, the line between public and private remains fine and, in many cases, arbitrary. </p>
<p>Former SBS sports reporter Scott McIntyre, for example, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/sbs-presenter-scott-mcintyre-sacked-over-inappropriate-anzac-day-tweets-20150426-1mtbx8.html">was sacked</a> by his employer in 2015 for breaching its code of conduct and social media policy for “inappropriate and disrespectful comments about ANZAC Day”.</p>
<p>Sponsorship exclusivity breaches and political protests alike have prompted <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2010.508534">greater surveillance and sanction</a> of athletes, too. In recent years, sporting bodies such as the Australian Olympic Committee have <a href="http://canoe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ATHLETES-2016-Australian-Olympic-Team-Membership-Agreement-FINAL-w-Schedules.pdf">used policies</a> or guidelines to control athlete blogging, posting and tweeting – especially during competitions. </p>
<h2>Masculinist sport, conservative politics</h2>
<p>The traditional political conservatism of sport is revealed in its discomfort with athlete and employee engagement with controversial social and political issues.<br>
It still has a major problem with <a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/news_and_media/blog/sports,_sexism_and_the_law_some_contextual_history">gender and sexism</a>. Cricket, like most sports, is dominated by men. There has been a long struggle and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-australia-removes-pregnancy-clause-in-move-toward-gender-equality-20170725-gxi9yi.html">some progress</a> over gender equality, but its organisational culture is still reflexively masculinist.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/status-anxiety-should-academics-be-using-social-media-25142">Status anxiety: should academics be using social media? </a>
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<p>In the space of a fortnight, Cricket Australia <a href="https://www.examiner.com.au/story/5560780/cricket-australia-under-attack-over-sacking/">was celebrated</a> as an Endorsed Employer for Women by an international jobs network, then had the designation suspended over the Williamson case.</p>
<p>Its punitive treatment of a woman publicly expressing her dissatisfaction with a state government’s reproductive health policy makes a mockery of the statement in its <a href="https://www.cricketaustralia.com.au/about/our-strategy">Five-year Strategy </a>(2017-2022), that it is:</p>
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<p>focused heavily on the critical importance of women and girls to the sustainability of cricket in Australia going forward. </p>
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<p>Other employers with similarly strong pronouncements about workforce gender diversity should reflect on this gap between rhetoric and practice before reaching for their social media policy and eject button.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Williamson’s sacking over a tweet reveals not only problems with social media policies and freedom of speech, but the pervasive masculinity of sporting organisations.David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/949762018-04-13T07:17:48Z2018-04-13T07:17:48ZSeven and Foxtel snag cricket rights, meaning more content but maybe not for free<p>Under a new broadcast rights deal Cricket Australia will part ways with its long broadcast partner, the Nine Network, after more than 40 years. </p>
<p>The A$1.182 billion deal lasts six years and will commence from this coming summer through to 2024. It will be split between Seven and Foxtel. </p>
<p>As part of a new deal, Seven West Media will pay A$75 million per year to <a href="http://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/assets/pdfs/180413-SWM-Cricket2.pdf">broadcast</a> Big Bash League matches (43 of the 59), all home international tests, including the Ashes (2021-22), some Women’s Big Bash League and International matches, along with award ceremonies including the Allan Border Medal and Belinda Clark Award.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-sport-broadcast-rights-worth-the-money-37460">Are sport broadcast rights worth the money?</a>
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<p>Foxtel will pay A$100 million per year and <a href="https://www.cricketaustralia.com.au/media/media-releases/landmark-cricket-broadcast-partnership-announced/2018-04-13">promises</a> to “show every ball of every over bowled in Australia”, also part of the new deal. </p>
<p>Foxtel will have a dedicated cricket channel. Its coverage will include: simulcasting games from Seven, exclusive rights to men’s one day international and T20 games and 16 Big Bash League matches. </p>
<p>A key for part of the deal for Foxtel has been it securing exclusive digital rights. </p>
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<p>The Nine Network’s partnership with Cricket Australia had a rocky start when the Australian Cricket Board decided to ignore Kerry Packer’s bid in 1976, in favour of the then partner - the ABC. Packer then changed cricket forever with <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/worldseries/content/story/72632.html">World Series Cricket</a>. </p>
<p>Today’s new media rights deal is another major shift in Australian cricket history. Not only is it the first time Seven will be involved in cricket, the new deal will also <a href="https://www.cricketaustralia.com.au/media/media-releases/landmark-cricket-broadcast-partnership-announced/2018-04-13">allow</a> Australian cricket fans to have access to more cricket coverage than ever. </p>
<p>While there are more hours, there is a definite shift in what will now be shown on free-to-air television.</p>
<h2>The negotiations</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-04/grassroots-cricket-to-benefit-from-financial-windfall/4732566">current</a> cricket broadcast rights deal with Nine and Ten is a five year A$590 million deal, ending this year. It was an 118% increase on the previous five-year deal. </p>
<p>Cricket Australia desired a similar increase with its new broadcast rights deal, asking a A$1 billion price tag. While it reached the A$1 billion price tag, the deal is for six years rather than five years. </p>
<p>Despite this, the deal is on par with recent increases in the cost of Australian sports media rights. Cricket Australia’s new rights deal matched the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-13/cricket-coverage-shakeup-with-seven-and-foxtel-winning-rights/9652964">percentage increase</a> from the previous deal, (achieved by the AFL) of 67%.</p>
<h2>The winners and losers</h2>
<p>The rights for Foxtel are a massive win, as Foxtel has lacked Australian summer sport content. By gaining the cricket it now has a full-year calendar of Australian sport. Its exclusive digital rights will allow Foxtel to expand its streaming platforms and potentially increase subscription across both its cable and digital services.</p>
<p>Foxtel’s exclusive digital rights will also dictate what Seven can do with cricket coverage. In <a href="https://theconversation.com/sevens-olympic-coverage-could-change-the-way-we-watch-sport-on-our-screens-60563">recent</a> years Seven has established a free (with ads) and premium service for its major sporting rights, including the tennis and the Olympics. For the cricket it appears that Seven will not be able to incorporate this approach.</p>
<p>Despite this <a href="http://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/assets/pdfs/180413-SWM-Cricket2.pdf">Seven executives see</a> the cricket rights as a better deal in comparison to the tennis rights, which it recently <a href="https://www.nineentertainmentco.com.au/2018/03/29/11/30/nine-secures-all-rights-to-tennis">lost</a> to the Nine Network. This is because the cricket media rights give the company over 400 hours of sport, more than double that of the Australian Open.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/declining-sport-viewership-shows-why-we-should-keep-it-on-free-tv-72357">Declining sport viewership shows why we should keep it on free TV</a>
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/chasing-the-audience-is-it-over-and-out-for-cricket-on-free-to-air-tv-76792">Previously</a> UBS media analyst Eric Choi had stated that Nine lost A$30-40 million a year on the current cricket rights deal. Nine will still have cricket as part of its <a href="http://www.adnews.com.au/news/seven-and-foxtel-secure-cricket-media-rights-in-1bn-deal#IcOHmgeXZ32QV67p.99">schedule</a> as it has rights to the next Ashes series from England and the ODI World Cup in the UK in 2019 and the T20 World Cups in Australia in 2020.</p>
<p>The biggest loser from the broadcasters’ perspective is Ten, that has held the rights and gained high ratings from the Big Bash League. It will now need to find programming to fill a very big void in its summer lineup.</p>
<p>Now Cricket Australia has to play a balancing act to make sure cricket is not placed behind a pay-wall and therefore see levels of participation <a href="https://theconversation.com/chasing-the-audience-is-it-over-and-out-for-cricket-on-free-to-air-tv-76792">decline</a>, as seen in the UK.</p>
<p>It has to ask itself, will Australians pay to watch cricket on their screens?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc C-Scott is a board member of C31 Melbourne (Community Television Station).</span></em></p>A 40-year partnership between Cricket Australia and the Nine Network ended today, with Seven and Foxtel securing media rights. The deal means more hours of coverage and is a big win for Foxtel.Marc C-Scott, Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/908452018-01-30T18:55:42Z2018-01-30T18:55:42ZWhy the rights to broadcast cricket could be worth $1 billion<p>A fierce bidding war is under way for the rights to stream and broadcast cricket for the next five years. The price is expected to reach <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/formal-talks-open-for-new-cricket-broadcast-deal/news-story/257b45a92612eb3cafb6ba7a131e3616?login=1">A$1 billion</a>, almost double the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-04/grassroots-cricket-to-benefit-from-financial-windfall/4732566">previous deal</a>. Media companies are facing stiff competition because increasing viewer numbers are luring social media websites and other platforms into the race to host this content. </p>
<p>The price for rights keeps going up even though the Nine Network is <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/channel-nine-urged-to-step-away-from-the-cricket-contract-by-analysts-20170425-gvruzl.html">losing money</a> on its cricket coverage and Seven’s CEO Tim Worner <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/seven-west-media-reports-745m-loss-20170815-gxx2uo.html">has stated</a> recent price increases for sports rights “are not sustainable”. </p>
<p>The Big Bash League, which is <a href="http://www.channel5.com/show/big-bash-cricket/">also broadcast internationally</a>, is a huge driver behind the new rights deal. The new players interested in the streaming rights include telecommunications companies like Optus and Telstra, social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) and Cricket Australia itself, which has its own website and app. This is on top of the traditional broadcasters like Nine and Ten. </p>
<p>Sport is key for broadcasters as they can attract advertisers with the promise of viewers who are watching live. Social media platforms and other websites want to lure viewers onto their platforms to discuss the games. Streaming platforms and telcos are trying to appeal to customers with access to exclusive content. </p>
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<p>Other sporting codes have recently been through this bidding process, and the deals they have struck hint at what is to come for Cricket Australia. </p>
<p>The AFL media rights, which started last season and run through to 2022, were sold for <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-08-18/afl-on-the-verge-of-signing-new-tv-deal">A$2.5 billion</a>. This is more than double the previous A$1.2 billion agreement. </p>
<p>The value of the NRL broadcast rights, <a href="https://www.nrl.com/news/2015/11/27/nrl-broadcast-rights-deal-announced/">starting this year</a>, also increased substantially from A$1 billion to A$1.8 billion.</p>
<p>But the AFL deal also faced a <a href="https://theconversation.com/chasing-the-audience-is-it-over-and-out-for-cricket-on-free-to-air-tv-76792">backlash from fans</a> after it restricted Telstra to streaming just a 7-inch video of live coverage – larger screens are filled with black space. This is true even for those who buy the A$89 subscription to the AFL Live app. </p>
<p>Fox Sports streams live full HD video as part of the deal.</p>
<h2>New players are driving up the cost</h2>
<p>One of the major drivers of the price of sports rights is the increase and uptake of streaming. Broadcasters <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/nine-boss-marks-signals-new-approach-sports-rights-467306">want</a> the rights to televise and stream the games, while tech companies, telcos and others are more interested in the streaming rights.</p>
<p>The number of people streaming the cricket has doubled in the past year, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/formal-talks-open-for-new-cricket-broadcast-deal/news-story/257b45a92612eb3cafb6ba7a131e3616?login=1">according to one Cricket Australia executive</a>, and paid subscriptions have increased by 30%. </p>
<p>Last year’s women’s Big Bash League was <a href="https://www.cricket.com.au/news/cricket-australia-crowd-attendance-television-audience-ratings-tests-bbl-wbbl/2017-03-31">streamed</a> across cricket.com.au, Facebook and the Cricket Australia app, reaching 1.5 million people. This season, 47 of the matches were streamed on <a href="https://www.mamamia.com.au/wbbl/">Mamamia</a>, a lifestyle website aimed at women.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-sportscasting-cricket-australia-launches-on-apple-tv-35253">The future of sportscasting? Cricket Australia launches on Apple TV</a>
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<p>Social media platforms want live sport to attract large crowds that will then use the platform to discuss the event. Twitter has a <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/events/2017/step-to-the-plate-with-mlb-on-twitter.html">deal</a> to stream Major League Baseball games (and <a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000807983/article/nfl-twitter-announce-partnership-to-deliver-live-programming">formerly</a> had one with the National Football League). </p>
<p>Twitter has also previously <a href="https://theconversation.com/twitters-live-stream-of-the-melbourne-cup-could-change-how-we-broadcast-sport-67291">streamed the Melbourne Cup</a>. Last year Facebook unsuccessfully <a href="https://twitter.com/HTSportsNews/status/904630275610615808">bid US$600 million</a> for the rights to stream Indian Premier League cricket. </p>
<p>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.sporttechie.com/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-says-paying-for-live-sports-video-content-isnt-a-long-term-goal/">has described sport</a> as “anchor content”. In other words, it will encourage people to watch more video on Facebook. </p>
<p>In addition to social platforms, Telstra and Optus have been competing with each other by offering exclusive content. Telstra <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-the-afl-gets-richer-who-gets-richer-with-it-46321">holds</a> AFL and NRL streaming rights, and also has a TV service, giving customers access to various content including sport.</p>
<p>Optus is an <a href="http://www.optus.com.au/shop/entertainment/sport/cricket">official partner</a> of Cricket Australia, allowing its customers to stream cricket without incurring <a href="http://www.optus.com.au/shop/entertainment/sport/cricket">data charges</a>. Optus also has exclusive <a href="https://yescrowd.optus.com.au/t5/Blog/Optus-Sport-Home-of-the-2018-FIFA-World-Cup/ba-p/340667">broadcast rights</a> to the 2018 FIFA World Cup.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/youtube-could-change-the-way-we-broadcast-sport-in-australia-43332">YouTube could change the way we broadcast sport in Australia</a>
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<p>And after all that, we get to the traditional broadcasters. Ten, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-impact-of-cbss-takeover-of-ten-is-much-larger-than-just-one-network-83095">now owned</a> by US network CBS, will be unlikely to walk away from the success it has had with the Big Bash League.</p>
<p>Nine’s CEO, High Marks, has <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/nine-boss-marks-signals-new-approach-sports-rights-467306">stated</a> that the network also needs to have streaming as part of the sports rights.</p>
<p>We have seen Seven recently undertake a hybrid mode with its coverage of the Olympics and Australian Open tennis. The broadcaster offers a <a href="https://www.7tennis.com.au/account/premium">premium paid tier</a> alongside its free streaming. This mode has created <a href="https://theconversation.com/sevens-olympic-coverage-could-change-the-way-we-watch-sport-on-our-screens-60563">tension</a> between free-to-air broadcasters and Foxtel, with requests for the government to remove the <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/policy/policy-listing/anti-siphoning">anti-siphoning rules</a> that prevent pay TV bidding for particular sports. </p>
<p>Foxtel is currently not involved in broadcasting domestic cricket, but it is likely to be part of new negotiations. The government has awarded Fox Sports a A$30 million <a href="https://www.grants.gov.au/?event=public.GO.show&GOUUID=B1AB9451-93B4-26B9-A7636D4B573E1DBA">grant</a> to support the coverage of women and niche sports. If nothing else, Fox Sports could seek to pick up the rights to women’s cricket, including the Big Bash League, which has had only a small percentage of games broadcast. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chasing-the-audience-is-it-over-and-out-for-cricket-on-free-to-air-tv-76792">Chasing the audience: is it over and out for cricket on free to air TV?</a>
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<p>Cricket Australia has <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/sites/default/files/subs/228._org_cricketaustralia.pdf">previously noted</a> that media rights make up as much as 80% of its income. Whatever deal is struck will have a huge impact not just for the professional players, but for the grassroots as well.</p>
<p>Cricket Australia will want to get the most for its rights, but needs to make sure not to impact grassroots participation and attendance. This was <a href="https://theconversation.com/chasing-the-audience-is-it-over-and-out-for-cricket-on-free-to-air-tv-76792">one of the side effects</a> in the United Kingdom when pay TV providers secured exclusive rights to broadcast the cricket.</p>
<p>There is a huge opportunity here for Cricket Australia to advance the way in which the game is delivered to all screens. But, as we can see, the changing media landscape means it needs to balance the needs of many stakeholders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90845/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc C-Scott is a board member of C31 Melbourne (Community Television Station).</span></em></p>The rights to broadcast cricket are being fought over by many different companies, who all want to stream the games.Marc C-Scott, Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/805442017-07-21T05:07:07Z2017-07-21T05:07:07ZAs the Australian cricketers’ industrial dispute drags on, here’s what we’ve learnt<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179102/original/file-20170720-2359-1wvfc7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Australian cricketers' refusal to work is a potent form of player power, however the potential benefits may be illusory.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Darren England</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-pay-war-okeeffe-weighs-in-on-pr-disaster/news-story/e087c6a24c8676bdf99e49e8ec052089">pay dispute</a> between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association reflects broader issues of workers seeking to increase their share of the wealth they help create through their labour. </p>
<p>In stalled negotiations, the players’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-cricketers-pay-dispute-will-lightning-strike-twice-in-the-same-place-78119">assertion of their rights</a> to a greater share of revenue can only be tested by their preparedness to strike in support of such claims. Such drastic steps are only contemplated when negotiations reach an impasse, like when employers seek to maintain current revenue-sharing deals, or – as in this case – seek to <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/state-cricket-at-risk-if-revenue-share-is-scrapped-steve-smith-warns-cricket-australia-20170709-gx7kd7.html">deal with individual players</a> directly.</p>
<p>The players’ refusal to work is a potent form of player power, but the potential benefits may be illusory. As the dispute drags on, both parties run the risk of alienating consumers (the viewing public), and possibly damaging the sporting brand.</p>
<p>The players’ strike in search of improved salaries across the cricket spectrum and several other demands, also recognises that an inflationary marketplace has emerged in professional sport.</p>
<h2>A unique workplace</h2>
<p>A feature of contemporary professional sports is that players are becoming <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0711/the-rise-of-labor-unions-in-pro-sports.aspx">increasingly well-organised and militant</a>. In this way, professional sports is <a href="http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/research-handbook-of-employment-relations-in-sport">bucking major trends</a> in industrial relations, such as a marked decline in both union membership and industrial disputes over recent decades.</p>
<p>Professional athletes now earn salaries far above those of other workers. Yet despite a profitable financial career, these athletes often form player associations to improve their employment conditions. </p>
<p>The need to form associations is due to a series of employment restrictions that limit the earnings of professional athletes at all levels. This is a unique characteristic of professional sport. Governing authorities have power to impose controls that would not be permitted in other workplaces.</p>
<p>Such controls include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>fixing employees’ rates of pay; </p></li>
<li><p>restricting the industry demand for labour; </p></li>
<li><p>imposing compensation fees on players when moving between employers; and</p></li>
<li><p>providing clubs with an equitable access to the supply of talent through measures like player drafts. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>These restrictions are justified by the need to foster junior development, to maintain public interest in sport by creating “competitive balance” (or even competition), and to ensure the sport’s financial viability.</p>
<h2>Differences between the codes</h2>
<p>The balance of power in professional sport in Australia has predominately remained with the governing authorities. But players are clearly <a href="http://ausathletesall.com.au/content/worldplayersunited-world-players-association-unveils-strategy-place-players-centre-world">having a greater influence</a>.</p>
<p>The bargaining power of athletes differs between various Australian team sports. The AFL and NRL offer the greatest opportunities for athletes to demand high salaries. These competitions have 18 and 16 professional clubs respectively, and each wants to attract the best players. Therefore, there are several prospective employers competing for the athletes’ services.</p>
<p>The situation that exists in professional cricket is different. Professional cricketers have access to greatest financial rewards at international level. But at this level, there is only one team for Test cricket and two teams for limited-overs cricket. However, there is also an avenue to cricket riches though the Indian Premier League. </p>
<p>So, Australian cricketers competing for a place to represent their country are employed in a marketplace with only one employer.</p>
<p>There are lucrative rewards for players who reach this pinnacle and are contracted to Cricket Australia. However, domestic players, and women cricketers, are not reaping the same financial benefits.</p>
<p>The current impasse is being spearheaded by those contracted to Cricket Australia. The <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/neither-cricketers-nor-bcci-officials-want-player-associations-in-indian-cricket/story-aBrkhLbS5xGHDWY8btbguO.html">issue at stake</a> for these players is that the collective agreement process be respected by the employer, and that the interests of all professional cricketers are protected.</p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>Much of the focus of the dispute <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-pay-dispute-fears-mounting-of-an-ashes-boycott-20170706-gx6c7j.html">revolves around</a> whether there will any disruption to this summer’s Ashes series. </p>
<p>However, the more salient issue in the longer term is that the dispute can be interpreted as a test of power. The outcome is likely to shape future negotiations in cricket and potentially other professional sporting codes.</p>
<p>In most other industries, the strength of organised labour has been aggressively challenged by government regulations that have sought to curb union power, and by assertive employers seeking to bypass unions in support of direct negotiations with employees. Unions now <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Unions_in_a_Contrary_World.html?id=c7n3UGcuLJ0">live in a contrary world</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, if there is an intention to sideline player associations in major Australian sporting codes, employers may find there is no such decline in the power of organised labour in sports. Quite the opposite.</p>
<p>Industrial relations, like cricket, is a contest. The employment relationship embeds both co-operation and conflict, in <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Conflict_at_Work.html?id=JZNsQgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">what’s been described</a> as a form of “structured antagonism”.</p>
<p>This concept recognises that both parties have a joint stake in the success of their enterprise, but nevertheless have different interests that need to be resolved through either co-operative employment relations – where employers and workers partner together – or adversarial relations and disputes.</p>
<p>Across different codes, athletes now have a louder voice to assert their interests. And they are expressing a clear preference for a larger share of the pie, and that negotiations occur through collective agreements with their chosen representatives.</p>
<p>Both on and off the field, the stakes are high. And in the industrial relations of sport there are winners and also losers, particularly when the parties fail to work together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Professional sports is bucking major trends in industrial relations, such as a marked decline in both union membership and industrial disputes over recent decades.Michael Barry, Professor, Griffith Business School, Griffith UniversityJames Skinner, Professor of Sport Business and the Director of the Institute for Sport Business, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/693392016-11-24T19:24:46Z2016-11-24T19:24:46ZPink balls in day-night cricket could challenge players at sunset<p>Cricket is a great game but it can be dangerous so anything that can reduce the potential risk to players in the game should be considered. </p>
<p>I have already <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-ditch-the-pink-ball-in-day-night-test-cricket-52083">raised my concerns over the use of the pink ball</a> during day-night games played in Australia. </p>
<p>But now I believe it is important to raise legitimate concerns about playing with a pink ball at sunset. </p>
<h2>How fast?</h2>
<p>People may be able to see a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-27/sixteen-shades-of-pink/6889650">pink ball</a>, but that doesn’t mean they can accurately judge its velocity. </p>
<p>Speed perception is a special property of vision, tapping specialised mechanisms and brain structures. </p>
<p>Human motion perception relies on brightness differences. When brightness differences are small, we can have trouble judging speed. Worse, people tend to see things as moving more slowly than they actually are when there are only slight brightness differences.</p>
<p>Which brings us to pink cricket balls at sunset. During the day, the pink ball is darker than the sky. At night, when stadium lights take full effect, it is brighter than the sky. </p>
<h2>A vanishing ball</h2>
<p>So at some point, about sunset, it must switch. For a while the pink ball is nearly equal in brightness to the sky. About this time players and umpires may have trouble judging the ball’s speed as it moves against the sky.</p>
<p>If that were the only issue, it might be minor. Unfortunately some readings a student, Joshua Adie, and I took at the recent day-night <a href="http://www.cricket.com.au/series/sheffield-shield-2016-17/dVcpvBKyO0C6DwoKFpeuQg">Sheffield Shield</a> match, between Queensland and New South Wales, at The Gabba in Brisbane suggest otherwise. </p>
<p>Thanks to Cricket Australia, we were able to take readings of the match ball, pitch, field, the sky above the stadium and the Gabba stands.</p>
<p>The appearance of coloured objects changes with lighting. A pink ball will seem to get brighter relative to green grass and straw coloured pitches as lighting changes from the yellow sun at midday to the red setting sun. This reverses as lighting switches from sunset to artificial stadium lights. </p>
<p>The readings we took at the day-night Shield match in Brisbane suggest that at about sunset the pink ball is nearly equal in brightness to the pitch and the field. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147306/original/image-20161124-15365-1qcit7s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147306/original/image-20161124-15365-1qcit7s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147306/original/image-20161124-15365-1qcit7s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147306/original/image-20161124-15365-1qcit7s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147306/original/image-20161124-15365-1qcit7s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147306/original/image-20161124-15365-1qcit7s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147306/original/image-20161124-15365-1qcit7s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147306/original/image-20161124-15365-1qcit7s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Physical luminance contrasts for white, pink and red cricket balls relative to the sky. Sunset was at 6:02pm. The bold horizontal black line depicts 0 luminance contrast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Adie and Derek Arnold</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So at about sunset players and umpires may have trouble judging the ball’s speed, seeing it as slower than it actually is as it moves against the sky, pitch and field.</p>
<h2>Lost in the background</h2>
<p>Players and umpires may also not be able to see the ball at all at sunset as it moves against the crowd and seating. </p>
<p>Our readings suggest there was little average difference in brightness between the Gabba stands and the pink ball at sunset. </p>
<p>But the crowd is not a uniform background. It has many colours and it moves. Such a backdrop can make it impossible to see a fast moving object, particularly when there is little difference in average brightness. </p>
<p>At sunset, we felt we could not see the pink ball at all as we viewed it from an angle similar to the square leg umpires view, with the stands as a background.</p>
<p>About 10% of males have a form of colour-blindness, including Australian wicket keeper Mathew Wade. These people may have trouble seeing the pink ball against the grass at all times, but particularly at sunset when brightness differences are reduced. </p>
<p>You may be surprised at these concerns, if you watch the day-night test match on television. But the human eye is not a television camera. It can be hard to see things in person that are clearly visible on television. </p>
<h2>What to do?</h2>
<p>Long term a better-coloured ball could be developed. To maximise brightness differences, it should be white, like one-day cricket balls, or perhaps black and white. </p>
<p>But there are issues here as well. Apparently white one-day balls wear too rapidly. Perhaps a more robust version will be developed in time.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147302/original/image-20161124-19696-h2mx18.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147302/original/image-20161124-19696-h2mx18.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147302/original/image-20161124-19696-h2mx18.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147302/original/image-20161124-19696-h2mx18.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147302/original/image-20161124-19696-h2mx18.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147302/original/image-20161124-19696-h2mx18.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147302/original/image-20161124-19696-h2mx18.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147302/original/image-20161124-19696-h2mx18.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The three colours of a cricket ball: pink, red and white.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Derek Arnold</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Until then, I would urge cricket administrators to avoid scheduling play at sunset. Our readings suggest visibility before dusk, and after stadium lighting takes full-effect, is better.</p>
<p>It would be tragic if a fast moving ball struck a player or umpire at sunset because they underestimated its speed. Dropped catches and missed shots are more likely, but of less concern. </p>
<p>From a tactical perspective, if I were the fielding captain I would have my fastest bowlers on at sunset and for the period shortly after. Speed perception errors tend to be proportional, so they will be greater for faster moving objects.</p>
<p>As a scientist I don’t want to be alarmist. Human vision is exquisite. It can extract an estimate of speed in most circumstances. </p>
<p>Lighting at a stadium is also complex, and our readings might not accurately reflect the perceived brightness of the pink ball. Black stitching on the new pink balls might also help, but that is a small feature of the ball, so it may not fix the problems we have described. </p>
<p>If you don’t believe the science, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/australia-v-south-africa-test-series-colourblind-wicketkeeper-matthew-wades-issue-with-the-pink-ball-20161121-gsu2aa.html">ask the players</a> and umpires. When it comes to human vision, you really can trust their eyes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Derek Henry Arnold does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows pink cricket balls can be extra difficult to see in those crucial minutes when day turns to night during play.Derek Henry Arnold, Associate Professor - Perception, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/319842014-09-26T02:32:38Z2014-09-26T02:32:38ZWhy AFL grand final is the most successful event in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60128/original/2wp9bxfc-1411698410.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hawthorn fans watched the players train this week - everyone is a winner when it comes to the AFL grand final.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the Sydney Swans take on Hawthorn at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, it won’t just be AFL fans cheering.</p>
<p>As Australia’s dominant sport competition, the AFL generates more revenue than any other national sporting code. In 2012 it attracted $425 million comprising ticket sales, memberships, television rights, sponsorships, merchandise, gaming, and sundry income. </p>
<p>In contrast Cricket Australia generated $206 million, while Tennis Australia, National Rugby League, and Football Federation Australia <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/data-point/afl-leaves-other-codes-in-the-dust-20130326-2grkp.html">secured $186 million, $136 million and $95 million respectively</a>. </p>
<p>This not surprising in view of the AFL’s spectator numbers. In 2013 it attracted 6.4 million fans to its home and away games, while another 559,000 attended the finals series. In short, the total season attendance exceeded seven million people. </p>
<p>The NRL cobbled together just over 3.1 million admissions, while the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Australian_football_code_crowds">A League</a> assembled 1.8 million ‘fan visits’ for the season. </p>
<p>The AFL has also become the most popular site for sports betting, excluding horse racing. Horse racing turned over $20 billion in 2012, while the AFL and the NRL churned $900 million and $750 million respectively, <a href="http://australianwageringcouncil.com/assets/docs/Deloitte_-_Optimal_Product_Fees_Report.pdf">underpinned by a 13% annual growth rate</a>. </p>
<p>This is not a bad financial outcome for an enterprise that is technically not for profit, has no shareholders, and is not required to pay dividends. Being a company limited by guarantee, the AFL is able to undertake commercial initiatives, but does not have to pay tax on its profits, since, legally speaking, it only makes surpluses. </p>
<p>These surplus funds are reinvested in the business, so to speak, and used to “grow the game” into the future.</p>
<p>The second point to note that as a highlight of the Australian sporting calendar, the grand final receives saturated media exposure - its national television audience usually peaks at around 4.5 million, which makes it the <a href="http://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/docs/default-source/business-unit-news/2013-afl-grand-final-dominates-on-seven.pdf?sfvrsn=2">highest rating Saturday afternoon television event for the year</a>. </p>
<p>It is additionally the highest rating football competition, with NRL grand final viewership usually peaking at just over 3.9 million.</p>
<p>The AFL grand final is also good for the city of Melbourne. The excitement begins with the Brownlow medal count for the best player of the season, it builds with the parade of players through the city streets on Friday, and culminates in the frenetic playing out of the game on Saturday afternoon. It is an <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/gallery/2013-09-27/grand-final-parade">old ritual</a>, but a good one.</p>
<p>Many fans come from interstate, and, from a commercial perspective the more “out of towners” the better. Saturday’s game is anticipated to draw 30,000 interstate fans. </p>
<p>On the assumption they will have spent $200 on a ticket, paid $600 for two nights of accommodation, and spent another $500 on food, drink, and entertainment, then this average per-person spend of $1,400 will generate additional in-Melbourne expenditure of $42 million. This becomes a <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/sydney-fan-invasion-to-give-victoria-an-extra-10-million-boost/story-fni0fit3-1227067080996">valuable boost the local economy</a>.</p>
<p>But, Melbourne gets more than commercial benefits from hosting the AFL grand Final. The psychological, social, and cultural benefits are less tangible, but are more significant. This is because the AFL grand final is more than a game, and more than an event. It is a sporting festival that brings people together in the most inclusive of ways. Class divisions are forgotten, social bonds are created, friendships are strengthened, civic pride is enhanced, and individuals feel emotionally alive. </p>
<p>There is massive community goodwill, and connectivity and optimism dominate the mood of the city. It celebrates our egalitarianism, and allows us to reflect on our democratic traditions. It also highlights our rich cultural heritage, and especially the magnificent achievements of <a href="http://aflcommunityclub.com.au/index.php?id=790">our aboriginal footballers</a>. It is the perfect springtime experience.</p>
<p>Critics argue that the AFL is a focal point for brutal exhibitions of ugly hyper-masculinity, a site for a barrage of racist and homophobic commentary, a game that <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/society-and-culture/kicking-goals-on-gay-pride-20130205-2dwdp.html">marginalises minorities</a>, and an institution that not only sexualises women, but also accommodates violence against them. In response, the AFL argues it is trying actively to <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-08-13/rulebreakers-a-short-history-of-conduct-unbecoming">change the culture</a> that enables these problems.</p>
<p>The AFL Grand Final is both good for the economy and good for society. It is Australia’s most socially responsible sporting enterprise, and by any measure, contributes an enormous amount of social utility to the broader community. It is a great indigenous game, a first-order icon, and a national treasure, all wrapped into one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bob Stewart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When the Sydney Swans take on Hawthorn at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, it won’t just be AFL fans cheering. As Australia’s dominant sport competition, the AFL generates more revenue than any…Bob Stewart, Associate Professor in the School of Sport and Exercise Science, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.