Television coverage in Japan
Tony Munro - 8 May 1999

Before we get to the news from around the globe, I thought you may be interested in reading an email I received in the past fortnight from Faiz Kabir in Sendai, Japan. I felt Faiz's situation would be similar to many of you helping to keep cricket alive in non-traditional areas.

I am encouraged by your style of friendly talking. I am living in Sendai, the largest city of Northern Japan. In 1997 we set up a cricket club named "Sendai Cricket Club". Last year we started a tournament "The Tohoku Cup". Three teams - Sendai Green, Sendai Blues and Miyagi United participated in the Tournament. Sendai Blues became champion. This year we hope we can attract more Japanese to cricket. But one thing bothers us much. There is no way to watch live cricket in Japan. Many of us subscribe to satellite TV (Sky Perfect TV). But they don't and won't broadcast any game of world cup cricket in Japan. This is a very sad matter. It seems Japan Cricket association also doesn't bother. Nor ICC. The single most important promotional activity by ICC would be to broadcast live cricket by a satellite channel. ICC can start a channel even commercially and I can bet ICC will not incur financial loss. ICC must take up this matter. They should offer royalty free or subsidized broadcasting to countries where cricket is in the budding stage. Unless people see great events like World Cup cricket, they won't get motivated. Propaganda is a very important tool for promotion. Since you are in a good position to link different segments of cricket world, would you please highlight this aspect. Would you please urge ICC to make arrangement for broadcasting live cricket to countries like Japan and allow the cricket fans here to share some moments of pleasure with the rest of the world. Thank you, Faiz Kabir, Sendai Cricket Club, Sendai, Japan.

While it is now probably too late to alter the television arrangements, I believe Faiz's points remain valid - what a boost it would be for cricket in non-traditional areas if cricket's administrators saw the value in proactively ensuring these potential new growth areas received some sort of coverage of our game's greatest promotional vehicle, even if no revenue was sought. The return, even if it is years down the track, would surely be incalculable if this were part of the strategy in every staging of the World Cup. Whether a satellite channel is workable is open to discussion, but a proactive television policy is a must.

Such a policy would complement the ICC's increasingly progressive attitude towards consolidating our game in non-traditional areas and spreading it to new ones. This would obviously involve a reversal in policy from one where the host country merely chose between bids from those countries where more than one television company sought the rights to cricket's administrators proactively ensuring television coverage of the World Cup is used as part of a push into desired new markets.