Cricket: Rupert Murdoch backs Bazball
Rupert Murdoch no longer owns Sky TV but its reasonable to suggest that Sky Sports interest in cricket coverage relates to his period of ownership. Audiences for Sky’s cricket coverage in the UK are far from recording breaking other sports from Formula One to darts being more popular.
At the moment Murdoch is building the Times brand in Britain with Times Radio and various other media ventures. He is thought to scrutinise the front page of the paper and no doubt has a word about the Editorials.
In that context its interesting that the third Times Editorial on 13th December praised the England cricket team’s Test victories in Pakistan. Particular praise was reserved for England captain Ben Stokes and team coach Brendan McCullum. Together they have developed a strategy known as Bazball.
Broadly this relates to using a good bit of fast bowling, pitched well up, with the aim of winning(or if it comes to it) losing games rather than drawing them. As The Times notes it’s a sort of hybrid between short form T20 cricket and the longer Test form.
So far its working, with England winning eight out of nine Tests under McCullum. It certainly makes Test cricket more interesting but not thankfully shorter in duration
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