@JordanWiemer That’s 3 appalling home performances in a row. The direction of travel is deeply concerning. He is responsible for the very odd team selection. If it weren’t for the likelihood that no one decent wants to work for Pozzo, in any other circumstance he’d be getting sacked.
There seems to be an avalanche of something new in cricket these days: “CONTENT.”
I was under the hopelessly outdated impression that a game of cricket was something to be enjoyed and cherished in its own right. How quaint!
No, apparently cricket now has to be content — sliced into bite-sized clips, funnelled onto social media, piped into betting apps, packaged for overseas TV deals and, above all else, MONETISED!!!
The match itself? Almost incidental.
Spectators in the ground? Nice to have. Just enough to look respectable on tv and buy the latest replica shirt. But only if they’re the right demographic. Definitely no grey hair. It doesn’t photograph terribly well.
Team loyalty? A little old-fashioned.
Brand loyalty? Now that’s what we’re talking about!
The aim is to persuade an endless stream of consumers — sorry, fans — to keep buying the merchandise, subscribing to the platform, engaging with the content and boosting the metrics.
Churn. Clip. Optimise. Monetise.
Repeat until the investors are happy.
I always rather naively thought cricket — and perhaps sport in general — was about something else entirely.
About connection and belonging.
About following the same team your parents and grandparents supported. Watching young players arrive as nervous teenagers and seeing them grow into veterans. Sitting in the same stand, chatting to the same familiar faces every summer, travelling to the same old grounds whose creaking pavilions have witnessed generations before you.
Those things aren’t efficient. They don’t scale particularly well. They’re difficult to measure on a dashboard.
But they’re the whole damn point.
In an increasingly artificial world, authenticity becomes more important, not less.
Places and teams with history. Traditions that weren’t invented by a marketing department. Competitions that still have rough edges and don’t feel as though they’ve been focus-grouped into existence.
They remind us that not everything has to be optimised. Not every moment has to become a clip. Not every emotion has to be converted into engagement.
Some things are valuable precisely because they aren’t trying to sell you something.
Perhaps that’s why the One Day Cup feels so important this year, and why so many people seem to be rallying behind it — and turning away from the alternative.
It isn’t perfect. It never has been. In fact, its imperfections are part of its appeal.
It still feels like a competition that belongs to the people who turn up, rather than the people who own the broadcast rights. It still belongs to counties, communities and supporters rather than investors, betting markets or social media algorithms.
Most of all, it still feels like cricket.
Not content.
And in 2026, that feels quietly radical.
@TBBodell Well I’m well under 60 and I find it infuriating! Because when you go onto YouTube, iPlayer or ITVX, the thumbnail always has spoilers, either in the picture or caption. Maybe I’m just a bit eccentric but I want to watch the highlights without knowing the score goddamit!
@SSMLtalk@Stewkley_FC@SSMFLOfficial Ah, thanks for the explanation! Not sure I agree with that approach but I can see the logic with the step 6 expansion coming soon, more promotion spots will be available this year but clubs will need the ground grading
@tiff_tv Exactly! The biggest mistake any championship can make is to let the manufacturers write the rules. Motorsport history is littered with the corpses of defunct series where the manufacturers did just that and promptly ruined them. They don’t know or care what makes for good sport.
@SSMLtalk Bovingdon, MK Irish Dev, Eynesbury and Stony Stratford applied. Rules are that the top club out of those will get promoted provided they finish in the top 5. Bovingdon’s 4-1 win over Irish on Saturday was therefore massive. They just need to avoid a 5 goal defeat tonight to go up