Which sport is the best to watch on the telly?
In 2020, quality leisure time is rarer and more precious than a coherent climate change argument on Magic Talk. IF you choose NOT to watch Rick and Morty on Netflix and expend it on the couch and sport instead, which one should you choose?
Football
The beautiful game packs a lot of value into a short space of time, going for a shade under two hours with minimal breaks. And during a World Cup you’ve basically got no option but to re-orientate your life / sleep patterns around a foreign time zone and slip in like a warm bath.
The issues come when trying to catch the Champions or Premier League matches that start when you should be getting the kids off to school and / or going to work. Especially so when your team is playing and the whole thing goes to penalties, which completely buggers your commute, turning you into a wreck of tension and distraction and an extremely unpleasant person to sit next to on the bus.
Rugby
You've really got two options - one is falling-asleep in front of the telly trying to concentrate on a meaningless Blues v A South African Team match on a Friday night after a tough week, or the invite-half-the-neighbourhood option for an All Blacks test. The former can be very relaxing, while the latter is great fun until it’s 3am and there are still people with taped-up-ears doing lineouts in your lounge.
If you want to multi-task you’re in luck, as rugby has long, long dead periods of fucking around setting scrums built-in for some reason, giving you ample opportunity to update your Facebook, cook some sausage rolls or renovate the bathroom without missing any of the action.
Cricket
It depends. White ball cricket is over in three-and-a-bit hours, or a day, which is a lot of time but can generally be justified as long as you make dinner or go to the supermarket etc in the middle of it. But the five day Test is something you need to manage carefully, anticipating when things will get exciting and working around it, between work, relationship and general interacting with society commitments.
The game itself gives you plenty of time back between balls and innings to get a beer, unpack the dishwasher or send some tweets to NZ cricket Twitter, the finest Twitter there is.
Netball
Like football, it packs a lot into a short space of time, and is usually on at TV-friendly times. But my goodness, a close Test match vs Australia is one of the most intense sporting experiences you can have, and are probably not good for your heart health. I advise keeping the defrib handy.
Basketball
The NBA is the ultimate skive-off-work sport, coming right in the middle of the day here in New Zealand. Grab a hot desk in the corner, prop your phone on a mug and you’re away. Just remember your headphones, and / or work from home.
Thanks for reading - Richard
The week's best NZ sport content
Long look (and cool data interactive) at the great man Ross Taylor’s Test career, as he gets set to play his 100th today [NZ Herald]
Being a mother AND an international athlete creates demands on your emotions, body and time - Cheree Kinnear speaks to some remarkable women making it work [NZ Herald]
RNZ’s fantastic The Detail podcast looks at what’s wrong with rugby, and why the global economics aren’t stacking up [RNZ]
Video nasty
Still one of the greatest ads.
Long read
Recommendation
Knives Out is a fantastic Agatha Christie tribute, with twists, turns great actors and performances, IF you can handle Daniel Craig’s Foghorn Leghorn accent.
Selected weekend fixtures
Today is the first day of the Test series v India at the Basin - which means many people in Wellington will be hungover. Play starts at 11.30am, it’s on SKY
The White Ferns start the T20 world cup v Sri Lanka from Perth at midnight Sunday morning. You’ll still be up, it’s on SKY
Crusaders v Highlanders is tonight at 7.05pm, it’s on SKY
The Phoenix play Western United this evening at 7.15pm from SKY Stadium, it’s on SKY
Bring back the gif
You running from the air conditioning to the air conditioning.
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