WITH the sun rising earlier each morning and daylight at the end of the working day, couch potatoes are growing restless.
Instead of sitting on the sofa armed with the remote, they are considering jumping up and running outside.
Why? It's certainly not because it is a good time to start a fitness regimen. It's because they are sick of no-contests.
Thank goodness the Australian cricket team's most boring tour of England is over. Can you even remember when it started? It was four months ago.
The Australians have been in the Ol' Dart for so long, the Poms were forced to investigate whether the Aussies were in fact trying to take up permanent residency. I think I may have detected a Pommy accent or two from the Aussie chaps the other night.
The battle for the Ashes didn't live up to the hype, both in terms of excitement and performance levels. Tons were few and far between, cracking catches were rare and generally one day early in each match decided the fate of the game.
The twists and turns that keep cricket tragics on the edge of their seats weren't there.
And because the Aussies lost the Test series, some gentlemen within the England Cricket Board decided it was time to deliver the killer blow to the visitors. ``How 'bout seven one-dayers sir? We'll kill 'em Gov' and the crowds will luv it and we'll be rich, may even be able to afford that bloke Warne and get 'im out of retirement.''
Instead of the wise heads saying "you've got to be kidding'', the pound won out over common sense.
If the Tests lacked the spice we had hoped for, then the seven one-dayers dished up were as interesting as watching grass grow.
Where was the mercy rule? How could Australia be expected to maintain its killer instinct after leading 6-0? They should have been sipping tea with the Queen and getting knighthoods for their achievement.
When was the last time a team had so comprehensively beaten an opponent in one-day cricket, once regarded as an unpredictable form of the game? Answer: A long time. And it should never be allowed to happen again.
Seven games is ridiculous even if two teams are equally matched.
One-day cricket is just about dead. No one cares about it any longer, it no longer has the interest it once had because Twenty20 has taken over.
While the game's administrators love seeing full crowds at one-dayers and T-20s, they only do so because of the money they generate. The sad reality is that players, the entertainers, have realised it too.
Why do great Test players like Freddie Flintoff retire from the long version of the game? To reap the rewards of T-20.
Is this good for the game? Past greats of the game must turn in their graves at the thought of players aspiring to play T-20s instead of Test cricket. Money truly is the root of all evil in sport.
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