It would then be safe to assume that no business plan or marketing strategy would willingly allow a situation where total TV viewership and gate receipts can be chopped radically ..
Which is what would happen if in a best-of-three series, one side was victorious in the first two games.
It is now becoming more than just a coincidence that in these best of three or even best of five international cricket matches, they almost always seems to go down to the wire.
Take the latest one day international VB series taking place in Australia with the best of three finals between Australia and Sri Lanka.
A few days ago Sri Lanka beat Australia pretty convincingly. Then on Sunday, Australia not only beat Sri Lanka but thrashed them by 167 runs. It was like a contest between a top international team and a schoolboy X1.
This is not the first time that we have seen fortunes changing so dramatically and it raises one single very important marketing question...
Quite simply, are marketers manipulating these games to make sure that players go into the third game one-all to guarantee sellout crowds and maximum TV viewership?
Ever since that best of six ODI fiasco between Australia and South Africa after that world cup in England where Alan Donald and Lance Klusener cocked things up so spectacularly, there has been an odious trend in one day internationals for teams to go down to the wire.
Just as in that best of six competition where we won two, then they won two and with the final two going down to the wire, there have been far too many outcomes that have looked incredibly rigged.
Is it possible that marketers are calling the shots instead of the captains? Co-incidence is one thing but this latest fiasco between Sri Lanka and Australia certainly seems to suggest that one-all after two games was planned right from the start.
It really is hard to believe that in the space of a few days, one team can go from so good to so shockingly bad. And that another team can go from mediocre to absolutely fabulous.
Frankly the more I look at cricket and the marketing of the sport, the more I am seeing distinct similarities between it and pro wrestling.
The only difference as far as I can see, is that the pro-wrestlers at least have the good grace to admit that all their matches are rigged.
