Cricket's TV calypso collapso

Experienced a day-off and a taste of St Lucian Sunday life yesterday. The beach was awash with activity: cricket; football and bbq's.

Football was an interesting one and raised an interesting viewpoint. As mentioned in an earlier post, the island was in danger of a cricket blackout on TV before the tournament as TV authorities wanted its viewers to pay to watch the tournament.

Flicking through the cable channels here shows just how much other sports have climbed over cricket's popularity here. ESPN and Fox Sports are two of the major sports networks shown and basketball and the English Premiership are now two of the most watched sports in the Caribbean. Dwight Yorke is now on an equal with Brian Lara, hoop stars are now being revered over cricket's current crop of tall fast bowlers. It doesn't help when only one World Cup match has also been shown on TV over the last two weeks.

The below photo captures cricket in the foreground but there was more interest in the football further up the beach.