We're greedy; we're stupid; we don't care

This ongoing spat between Cricket Australia and photo agencies (followed by the BCCI's idiotic comments that they'll follow suit) is merely the latest depressing reminder of how much I despise everything about cricket other than what happens on the field. Why cricket administrators feel the need to periodically remind us that they're a bunch of greedy, incompetent, blowhards is beyond me. But from a larger perspective this spat is no surprise. Cricket's managers don't understand very much about the fans, or the larger economy within which the game is staged. They don't get one simple fact: you pay advertisers to advertise your game, not the other way around. And they forget that cricket photographs make the game memorable; that they help keep the game alive, popularize it, and bring in more revenues from things like television. But what do the cricket managers care? Heads and wallets up their arses, they ride on their corporate donkeys towards the sunset, fattening up, and headed for the kill - of the game.