The nicknames of yore

The six nations is nearly upon us and your blogger is incredibly excited. The sporting competition which defines this part of the year is about to give us our weekend entertainment fix. The build up, the analysis, the matches themselves. And, of course, the nostalgia - reliving the great tries and teams of yesteryear. Misty eyed old codgers (your blogger included) will dream of the romanticism and innocence (well, sort of= of the amateur era. If only the modern pros would try to emulate their predecessors a bit more. And with Stuart Lancaster trying to instill this sense of history and pride into his team, perhaps he should consider getting his forwards to start coming up with nicknames like they used to in the old days - Mick 'the munch' Skinner, 'Iron' Mike Teague and Brian 'Pitbull' Moore spring to mind. It would certainly add a bit more colour than the Woodsey, Robbo and Lawsey that are probably being used currently, and would keep us old codgers happy too...

Reaching the masses

Andrew Murfett, writing in the Guardian, wrote about the big bash growing the second largest TV audience in Australia during their summer. Capitalising on this traditionally low season for TV programming and the TV friendly scheduling which is possible with Twenty20 cricket, big bash cricket has reached a level of exposure that few imagined were possible. Lessons could be learnt by the ECB - as the first country to introduce Twenty20 cricket, things feel like they've been stagnating. While it is still a vital source of income and crowds for county cricket, it feel like the UK version lacks the glamour of the IPL or Big Bash cricket. Granted, it is never going to be as big as the IPL, but as a way to create grass routes interest in the game, surely a free-to-air TV agreement would allow the sport to reach out to a much broader audience and cement its place in the British summer, along with Wimbledon and test match cricket. Sadly, I suspect that a more realistic outcome is that Twenty20 cricket will become a new battlefield between BT Sport and Sky competing for access and the ECB is likely to opt for the greater revenue goals available. The only hope then, is that one of the pay TV giants (most likely the new kid on the block, BT Sport) decide to cooperate with a free-to-view partner to allow greater exposure, sharing live games as well as highlights. And as the England team has struggled terribly over the last few months (including a new heartbreaking story today), the ECB could do well to diversify their focus on a strong national team as a way to drive interest in the game...

The danger of youth programs

Football acadamies are a good thing, right? Programs to encourage young talent and help them achieve at the highest level must be something positive, surely? Well, in terms of encouraging improved performance and results, then a well run youth development program is certainly a positive force. But a discussion with this blogger's friend brought up an interesting counter argument - if we want to reduce the prevalence of doping in sport, we need to abandon youth performance schemes. The logic behind it is that by getting kids trained at such a high intensity from such a young age leaves them so highly invested that they will do anything to succeed...even take performance enhancing drugs. It also exposes them at a young age to the kind of environment where they might be introduced to grey areas in the law (the misuse of painkillers, for example) when they are still impressionable - leaving them much more susceptible and accepting of more serious doping misdemeanors.

I'm not convinced it will be possible to keep talented kids away from high performance training programs, but the argument is an interesting one. And certainly, educating young sportsmen and women about the importance of having a level playing field, free from artificial performance enhancers is absolutely critical.