20 December

I've been a critic of hit and giggle cricket. I also saw today cricketers buying homes worth $25 million. At the same time most games of cricket now, except T20, struggle to get any sort of crowd, unless they're signature games like Ashes tests. India v Pakistan games used to draw similar numbers, but the last one of those I saw looked near-empty too. Bradman was an opponent of professionalised sport, he was thought of as a fuddy-duddy. And to be fair, lots of sports that still attract big crowds pay sportspeople millions of dollars. But I wonder if one generation of cricketers are milking every last cent out of populist formats now, while the rest of the game collapses.