Sky Sports presenter Michael Atherton speaks with Brendon McCullum of New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.
Sky Sports presenter Michael Atherton speaks with Brendon McCullum of New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.
There was a lot of sport to not watch this weekend and if it's a sign of the future, then it's a worrying one.
In South Africa, an inexperienced New Zealand surprised the hell out of me by squaring their T20 series against South Africa. Yes, it's "only T20" and, no, it's not a match that will be remembered in five years' time - thanks to a lack of coverage it won't be remembered in five hours' time.
New Zealand Cricket and the Black Caps have expressed their disappointment that the games are not being screened back here, but I have a shred of sympathy for Sky on this one. It is a low-key tour, New Zealand left a lot of good players at home and the games are at a poor time. Sky would have been asked to pay premium prices for what was only ever going to be niche ratings and clearly no other broadcaster was interested in stepping in where they chose not to tread.
The Black Caps weren't the only things missing from my screens.
Australia's latest sporting hero Jason Day broke his major jinx by winning the USPGA Championship at the televisually spectacular Whistling Straits golf course on the shores of Lake Michigan.
It is okay to question the sanity of those who habitually watch golf on TV, but the back nine on Sunday is more than a sporting cliché, it is classic theatre. This time it was exclusive theatre, hidden to the vast majority of casual fans who have no interest in the Frys.com Open or the Honda Classic, but will tune in for the majors or the Ryder Cup.
In England, Manchester City thrashed Chelsea in a highly anticipated Premier League fixture. Dedicated football fans may have already seen it on Coliseum's streaming service - at some stage this week the rest of us might catch it on an hour-long highlights show on TV One.
This might be the thin end of the wedge. Sky might still be in the strongest position because of its stranglehold over rugby and the home cricket season, but Coliseum has shown that they can be beaten at the negotiating table.
Most sports fans don't really care about new technologies and pay scant interest to broadcasting rights and deals. We just expect in this digital age, if an event is on, we should be able to watch it.
A fractured sports consumer market will mean we pay more or see less. I'm not convinced that this was how Milton Friedman would have drawn it up in his playbook - free market competition is meant to benefit the consumer, isn't it?
These are tricky times. Sky's hegemony is being challenged and they're coming up with new products (the technically challenged Sky Go), and packages like Fan Pass. Combined with existing pay-per-view events, this is just serving to confuse sports fans.
The viewer cares not one jot who's renting the satellite, or the fibre optics, or whatever.
They just want to watch sport. The more difficult that becomes, the more everybody loses - fans, national sporting organisations, broadcasters and internet service providers alike.
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One sport we could all happily watch was the All Blacks belting of Australia on Saturday night. It was a faith-restoring victory after the Sydney shambles, though we could have done without the sanctimony that followed (thankfully, not from the All Black camp themselves).
Following the victory I closely studied the rules of the World Cup. After hours of diligent research, I found the hidden clause I was looking for: if you lose in the knockout rounds of a World Cup, you do not get the opportunity to come back the following week at Eden Park to prove your critics wrong.
"If you're good enough to win your pool or come second, you get one more and that's it. That was the lesson in 2007.... It's knockout rugby, it's either a plane ride home or you get to hang around and have another go."
Like a lot of mere mortals, I'm feeling more comfortable about the All Blacks' World Cup prospects than I was this time last week, particularly after seeing Daniel Carter regain the spark that made him the pre-eminent first-five of his generation.
But Eden Park's showing doesn't alter one point: the tournament will be won by the team that can string three great performances together in October. There has been enough frailty shown this winter to not get too cocky about it.
GIVE 'EM A TASTE OF KIWI
I know you leaguies are doing it tough during what every television pundit likes to call the "back end of the season". So, just to cheer you up, remember this?
Coaches put far too much emphasis on experience when it comes to World Cups, with the 2003 England team wheelchaired out for every argument.
Milner-Skudder did nothing for the All Blacks on Saturday except break the game wide open. That undiluted brilliance is just as likely to win World Cups as a strong back seat of the bus.
I'm selling...
... Athletics
The sport, like cycling, is going to go through what I'd call a suspension of belief phase, no matter how strong the rhetoric or how many messengers are shot by governing body IAAF.
When you get somebody of the stature of Nick Willis admitting that athletes gather together to talk about it and know which ones are doping or not, yet the body tasked with protecting the sport's integrity doesn't, then you know you have a problem.
It is a fascinating time in Australian sport, bloody fascinating. On the one hand you have the netballing Diamonds, on the other you have the Ashes. Somewhere in the middle you have the Wallabies.
On the one foot you have Jason Day, on the other Nick Kyrgios.
Here, the Sydney Morning Herald's Andrew Webster tries to wrestle with the latter juxtaposition.
MY LAST $10
Every week I will make one $10 bet. The goal is to get to December 31 with more money than I would have had if I had put it in the bank.
Last week: Trying to chase my tail slightly with a halftime/ fulltime double on Liverpool over Bournemouth at $2.15. Liverpool obliged, taking a 1-0 lead before halftime and holding on, taking me back to profitability before this week's spend.
Last week's bet.
This week: John Isner to beat Sam Querrey head-to-head at Cincinnati Masters @ $1.55. Back the bigger server win this US Open tune-up.
Total spent: $90 Total collected: $85.40
OVER TO YOU This is your chance to rant, relive some memories, highlight a terrific grassroots sports performance, promote an upcoming sports reunion, or just send me crazy ideas. It's also not a bad spot for giveaways, if you're that way inclined. Email me at dylan.cleaver@nzherald.co.nz.
This (edited) email comes from Simon, who was at the Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney and it will be the last mention of the Adam Goodes racism furore in Australia.
I was travelling back on the packed train to the city after the test at Homebush. [There were] many NZers and Australians in the cabin. The atmosphere was good (better actually than many other times I've experienced post-test tension between NZ and Australian supporters). As we were about to get off the train at Redfern about two rows behind me an Australian voice asked: "Who's Adam Goodes?" His friend said: "He's that black b******." It was unbelievable, and so surprising to actually hear it. A New Zealander sitting in the row behind me confronted this idiot (not angrily, but with meaning), with excellent effect. It was bloody ugly seeing this sort of racism, especially coming from an apparently good-natured rugby union crowd.
