CA lobbies Nine to show cricket not NRL
Adrian Crawford
Updated February 14, 2012 01:35:52
Cricket Australia has asked broadcaster Channel Nine to decide what its priorities are ahead of an upcoming scheduling clash between cricket and rugby league.
The already long summer of cricket will run later than normal this year, setting up a head-on collision with the opening weekend of the NRL which was brought forward to accommodate representative fixtures later in the season.
Australia and Sri Lanka will meet at the MCG on March 2, the same night as the Parramatta Eels host the Brisbane Broncos in the opening Friday night NRL match of the year.
Two days later the first tri-series final at the Gabba overlaps with Nine's Sunday NRL broadcast of the round one match between 2011 grand finalists the Sea Eagles and the Warriors.
Either the cricket or the rugby league will be relegated to Nine's digital channel Gem and the broadcaster is yet to decide which.
Cricket Australia's general manager for public affairs Peter Young spoke on Grandstand Breakfast arguing that international sport needs to remain on the Nine network's main channel.
"We scheduled that game [Australia v Sri Lanka] well ahead of the NRL deciding to bring its season forward a little bit," Young said.
"Channel Nine now has an issue, particularly in Sydney and Brisbane, of deciding which game to put where.
"Our argument is simple: any time Australia plays, there are well over a million Australians tuning in to watch.
"It's blockbuster television and international sport should always be on the main channel."
Young defended the jam-packed schedule Australia has faced this summer - two Tests against New Zealand, four against India, a pair of Twenty20 games, the 15-match tri-series, and the domestic 20 and 50-over tournaments.
"The world plays a lot of cricket and it's not just us making unilateral decisions about where and when we play cricket," he said.
"We have to fit in with the rest of the world and persuade the rest of the world to try to fit in to us.
"We came up with what we regard as the best fit considering [India's] obligations, our obligations and what the Australian public wants.
"That's pushed us a little later into the year than we would traditionally go."
