Selling cricket as a commodity

Not all is gloom and doom though - KFC have re-signed with the BBL, obtaining naming rights ahead of this forthcoming season. The deal is valued at $1-2M, being the sixth season of this partnership. It never ceases to intrigue me, how the commercial partnerships between fast food corporations and 'sport' are accepted as something good. During the recent Rugby League World Cup I was bemused watching the advertisement of KFC Chips and Gravy $2-50, superimposed onto the playing arena.

Earlier on I alluded to the relationship between cricket and statistics. We can recite Sir Donald Bradman having a test average of 99.94, Shane Warne has the most test wickets for Australia, and we remember the last Ashes series on Australian soil being won by Australia 5-0. Yet, how many people know/care if Usman Kwahaja with an average of 51.18 has the highest average in the BBL format. Likewise, would many people know that Ben Laughlin, with 69 wickets, is currently the greatest wicket taker in this format? In the six years the format has been around, it has been won thrice by the Perth Scorchers. Is that recalled by most cricket fans? Does it actually mean anything after the sixes have been hit, the fireworks and music have been dulled, and the cameras no longer roll?

One does not have to be a boffin, with a head buried in books endlessly going through statistics, to marvel at the accomplishments of the men and women who have turned out on the cricket fields, to wonder where cricket is heading. Cricket has changed so rapidly and so much you wonder if it is appropriate to still call it a sport.

In a world where all seems about exchange for gain, everything being commodified, why should cricket, or any sport, be different? As we know all commodities have their two values, the use value and the exchange value, with the latter generally presenting as the primary. The KFC BBL is one of the most accentuated examples of the commodification in the sporting (entertainment) world. No longer do existing teams appear, but new franchises, where older concepts like playing for your team, your local side, are deemed irrelevant in entertaining the crowds with financial gain for players and corporate partners overwhelming all else.

This isn't criticism of a changing game from the perspective of an older bloke, more an observation of how these changes reflect our ever changing world. Cricket, now is packaged as entertainment not sport, with the skills and achievements displayed in the match, now accorded to its entertainment 'value', as it goes from being a sport, to playing a role in an industry where every game is little different. This commoditized entertainment package is part of contemporary Australia.