It's time to decide who we really are

JUST the other day, during a sandstorm stoppage at a Cricket World Cup match, the commentators on the wireless were discussing the game’s latest attempt to secure a foothold in the United States.

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“A lot of people over there think the 20-over format is too long-winded,” said one, apparently resigned to the fact that our cousins across the pond will not be playing five-day Tests any century soon.

Look at it from the perspective of the average Joe and Joanna in middle America, who simply cannot afford to waste two-and-a-half hours of precious down time on an unfamiliar sport when they could be watching WWE wrestling, or tuning into Radio Nutjob, or cleaning their guns. “If a batter doesn’t switchhit a ramp shot into the corporate hospitality boxes off the first ball and keep doing it for the rest of the night,” you can hear them saying, “he needs to get a wiggle on.”

Which leads us neatly to an interview in last week’s TRP with the US Eagles back Paul Lasike, who offered some interesting thoughts on the state of play in his neck of the rugby woods. The long and short of it? There is potential for growth, but the union code could accelerate things by simplifying the rules and regs that make union such a mystery to those who did not drink in the complexities of the lawbook with their mother’s milk.