Scoping the cricketscape and its future, consider the following:

Rodeo clowns, Wrestle Mania, Madi Gras, Rio Carnaval, Hollywood Bling, Hip Hop, attention deficit, thrill seekers, attention seeking, glory boys, showmen, put these things together and what do you get? The new age of cricket fans.

'I'm packing my bags for the circus'


RIPRAFF (noun) is a term I'd like to coin to describe the new generation of crickets thrill seekers. (R)ock-a-billy, (I)instant gratification, (P)op-culture, (R)odeo-clown-loving, (A)DHD suffering, (F)ast action-freak, (F)anatics or simple new age riffraff.

These bored people don't drive Ferraris they don't have a pilot's license and don't have what it takes to sail the seven seas or climb the heights of Everest. They get their kicks with their daily doses of boring life and inflict us with its consequences.

Now they plunder cricket. By tearing down this ball park to build a great big mall of psuedo Playstation thrills they paint the world in one colour. A shade of cheap-kicks.

The media, cashing-in, will tell you its vital. The cricketers making big Bucks will tell you it's imperative and the Ripraff will sing along as they always do when swept away by the tidal wave of pop culture.

Those of us that don't need to get our thrills vicariously at every cheap opportunity will be left with no retreat. The return from our exhilarating adventures in igloos in the Sahara will offer this, a neon-electric cowboy raging, 'Pack 'em and Smack 'em !'  Big 'six-shooting' rooting and tooting Wild West cricket shows as far as the eye can see will be the domain of the Ripraff and the cash waterfalls in the casino's of cricket will have made the sound of willow cracking leather entirely extinct.

I'm packing my bags for the circus and the hope of witnessing true talent and less of a show, coz I don't dance to Techno, Hip Hop or Electro any more.