If you you've been watching Channel 9 as of late (in particular, the cricket), you may be aware that there is a new movie out called Casino Royale. That's if you've caught one of the ten million ads they have been playing between the overs.

What a joke professional sports has become in recent times. It's all about dollars and cents. It's all I've known in my life, and in recent times, it has even made me sick. I wouldn't be able to bear it if I were someone from the second generation before mine, when sports persons had to have a job as well as compete to make a living. And they weren't competing for cash, they were competing for the country. What happened to that?

I can already hear people saying that they still are. Well, I beg to differ. Shane Warne, in his chase for more cash, now plays overseas in the English county competition, rather than doing something back here, in his home country. It's nothing new, many cricketers have done this over time. I'm not singling Warne out because he is an easy target - they are all as guilty as he. Rather than doing something to help promote the sport of cricket in Australia, such as playing in our domestic competition when he can, acting in coaching clinics or starting grassroots programs, they all chase the dosh and head over to the U.K.. Absolutely disgusting and disappointing.

And the amount of sponsorship crap we, the viewers, are forced to endure on T.V. for some mediocre cricket at times is even worse! Damned channel 9 slip ads in whenever they can. Am I glad that they are bringing the cricket to my homes? Yes. But would I just as quickly turn on a radio to listen (and, for that point, listen to more interesting people and their commentary) to the cricket if the advertising got out-of-hand: damn straight, and proven, because I did it for the fourth day of the recently completed test. I even found myself getting live updates on the computer, instead of watching the entire day's play, and when something interesting happened, would switch the T.V. on to watch what had just happened, knowing full well that I would likely have to endure a bunch of ads as the milked the cash and showed me some more ads before I saw any sort of replay.

Instead of seeing sports as a cash cow, the organisers and programmers should to show some form of audience loyalty. I mean, it's not like we don't see enough ads during prime time programming, in the early morning shows, at late night - throughout the entire day! And don't anyone tell me this is why pay T.V. should have all sports because I've watched pay T.V. enough to realise that they too have a ridiculous amount of ads (in regards to you having to pay to watch the shows as well).

Everything is quickly becoming commercialised, and hardly anyone seems to be saying something about it. Even S.B.S. is getting in on the act too, and they are unbearable between shows, as that's when most of their ads appear because they haven't taken to cutting up their entire line-up to slot ads in (though that's not to say they haven't started).

Just leave my sports alone, please. Let me enjoy them, rather than endure them.

Thomas.