I can sense a change in the air and it is favoring the cool temperatures of the north. This morning wasn’t Baltic or freezing by any means but it could be charitably be described as bracing!
No matter, summer is still in full flow and as any certified Anglophile will tell you no English summer can be complete without cricket and festivals and despite both being disrupted to some degree by rain both have turned out to be absolute corkers although England’s supremacy at the Test Match against Pakistan has been overshadowed by yet more allegations of match fixing this morning by the Pakistani bowlers.
Cricket used to be (and possibly still is) one of the most bet upon sports in the world simply by coincidence that it is so insanely popular in India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka and it is such a complicated game. Like baseball I can imagine that you could bet on almost anything with cricket from number of no (i.e. foul) balls bowled (thrown) to number of boundaries (distant relative to the home run) scored. Many aspects of the game cannot be adequately controlled so there is risk but many aspects (such as the no balls) can be controlled. One can also control the number of wide balls and, most importantly, when you can get out and for how many runs scored.
So as the game professionalized over time the amount of match fixing increased exponentially resulting in the infamous match fixing fiasco involving South African Captain Hanse Conje who was banned for life from the game after admitting that he had agreed to lose entire Test Matches in return for money.
One thing that many people outside of..well..Australia, England and India tend to forget is that Cricket is huge business worth billions of dollars last year alone in advertising and merchandising revenue. Its now huge business something which will explode as cricket continues to grow in America through its Australian, Indian, Pakistani and South African communities over there.
All of this means the spectre of match fixing and corruption grow ever greater so today’s revelations are extremely worrying.
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Recently I received an e-mail from a promising artist responding to one of the ads I had placed when I was looking for an artist when I was initially developing Hard Graft. The chap was confident, polite and his art is to a very good standard but he was proposing a new project for me to write something for. Sadly because I’m pre-occupied with Hard Graft I had to decline but several other factors also helped me make up my mind which I shall now juryrig into an impromptu guide for artists/writers writing to writers/artists.
The mystery man was courteous and polite but he was very sparing on the details and did not include an elevator pitch. Here are some tips for budding artists/writers out there:
- Presentation is paramount so use spellcheck and get someone to proofread your e-mail.
- Elevator pitches are key to getting noticed don’t make it too long but not short on detail.
- Be courteous and polite.
At the end of the day I wish the man well and fully expect him to find a writer to complete the team he’s putting together. My loss will probably be his gain but so far I’m busy with RL and web comic business to spare any time.
