Wednesday, April 20, 2005
The Gentle Game
It has just emerged that the grand total of cricketing finance in Britain paid for by the government will have reached, by 2009, the grand heights of approximately half Rio Ferdinand's annual wage.
I was all set to criticise this as stingy, miserly, and outrageous, when it occurred to me that it's no bad thing. Cricket often seems a much better game than Premiership football, particularly because the fans are involved. They're involved because they are needed - without them, the sport would go down the drain. Manchester United, on the other hand, could afford to have no spectators in the ground at all for a whole season, and barely feel a pinch in their pockets.
I was all set to criticise this as stingy, miserly, and outrageous, when it occurred to me that it's no bad thing. Cricket often seems a much better game than Premiership football, particularly because the fans are involved. They're involved because they are needed - without them, the sport would go down the drain. Manchester United, on the other hand, could afford to have no spectators in the ground at all for a whole season, and barely feel a pinch in their pockets.
