The first item was the Crawford Report, about which Jacquelin Magney of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote: "In 39 controversial recommendations to the Federal Government, the businessman David Crawford says Olympic success is expensive and funding would be better directed to big professional sports and those which reflect the national psyche."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/olympic-dreams-hit-for-six/2009/11/17/1258219840256.html
The second report was the press release by the MCC that stated Test Cricket as we know it is in serious trouble. Chloe Saltau of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote: "Fears for the future of Test cricket have been heightened by new research in which only 7 per cent of cricket followers in the sports' modern heartland, India, nominate Tests as their preferred form of the game.
"Test crowds have declined – India, South Africa and New Zealand.... (this) raised fresh concerns about whether Tests can remain relevant in the Twenty20 age.... The MCC's World Cricket Committee implored administrators to give the longest form of the game the "loving care and attention" it deserves."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/cricket/tests-not-bowling-over-the-masses/2009/11/17/1258219840402.html
There are three areas that seem to reflect the background of these two quite different reports. These might be summarised as:
First, professional sport has become one of the world's and Australia's major industries. When a soccer player can be transferred from one club to another club for hundreds of millions of dollars, professional sport is on par with steel making and multi-national manufacturing, in financial terms.
Second, in 1976 when Australia failed to win one goal medal at the Montreal Olympic Games, the outcry that this initiated led to the formation of the Australian Institute of Sport and huge Government funding of amateur, in particular Olympic sports. The Crawford Report asserts that now, in 2009, the 'once every four years' glory of Olympic Medals does not have the same 'pull' on the Australian psyche as it did in former times. It further suggests that many Olympic sports do not have the same appeal in the current climate of 'immediacy', as do top level sports; or sports that the majority of people are personally involved with, such as Cricket, Netball and the Football codes.
Third, and more poignantly, Cricket is experiencing a paradigm change which is affecting every aspect of the game. For example, next March when the Australian cricketers are playing their test matches in New Zealand for a sum in the vicinity of $15,000 for each Test, their colleagues such as Andrew Symonds will be playing in the IPL for around $250,000.
"In my view, this in itself illustrates the philosophical changes that the Crawford Report purported," commented M V Tronson. It seemed to suggest one dramatic change, its writers appeared to advocate an overhaul of the Australian Sports Commission board personnel and the CEO.
Mark Tronson further commented that this total change appears to date, to be one way to get a turnaround in 'group thinking.' He was reminded of several similar situations within the Christian community that he has witnessed over the past thirty years.
When the Reverend The Hon, Dr Gordon Moyes AC was the Superintendent of Wesley Mission, he invited a group of business advisors to find a way for Wesley Mission to purchase a major communications company. The initial group were unable to accomplish this to his satisfaction, he thanked them, and then brought in a fresh group, made up of different business people. They found a way forward to his liking. A paradigm shift in thinking was required.
The Pentecostal movement is another example; it has gone 'against the trend' of the conventional local congregations, with modern advertising campaigns, provision of activities that attracts young people and the use of top-of-the-range electronic media in its services. By these 'unconventional' means, it has managed to retain (and increase) its membership of young adults and young families. This could not have occurred within the mainstream churches as they were.
One more example of this 'jump in thinking' was an address to the NSW Council of Churches in 2005 by the Rev Robert Smith, Head of Churches of Christ, who highlighted and advocated the movement of 'Specialised Ministries' from the general 'parish pastor' to ministry in the community. New fresh ministries with expertise in particular fields that can help and advise people have blossomed and bought a new paradigm of ministry with it, that was, outside structures of the local church.
Like the Christian scene, it seems that the public support of sport is now at its own crossroads. David Crawford is not new to such reports on Sport, as he bought down in recent times both an AFL Report and a Soccer Report.
It will be fascinating to observe what direction the Government takes, in relation to the Crawford Report, as they hold the purse strings, and ultimately they will decide on how to spend the sports allocation for what they perceive is the best public 'good'.