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My original plan for this blog was to write articles on sci-fi TV shows. That didn’t last too long, but now I’ve decided to resurrect the blog by expanding its scope to that of general TV articles. I still plan to continue the sci-fi articles, but they’ll no longer be the sole focus of the blog.

That out of the way, it’s on to the topic at hand – the Cricket World Cup and its interference with the next season of the Amazing Race.

As noted in an article by Tashi, SABC3 has decided to delay the showing the next season of the Amazing Race because of the Cricket World Cup. Understandably, this has provoked some outrage, and so I decided to take a closer look to see if maybe the SABC’s decision was justified.

Firstly, the SABC disrupted regularly scheduled programming in order to show cricket is not a new thing. Ever since its inception ten years ago, SABC3 has been showing live cricket. Whether you like it or not, until the SABC introduces a sports channel, cricket season means that cricket is going to take the place of some programmes.

So which matches end up being shown on a Tuesday in place of the Amazing Race? The World Cup runs from 13 March to 28 April, and during that time there are the following Tuesdays:

13 March – West Indies vs Pakistan
This is the opening match of the World Cup, and it could definitely be argued that the SABC doesn’t need to show it.

20 March – South Africa vs Scotland
Even though Scotland are very weak opposition, and South Africa should win comfortably, this is a match involving South Africa so there’s a strong case for it being shown.

27 March – Runner-Up Group D vs Winner Group A
This is where it gets a bit tricky. The teams are initially divided into four groups and then the top two teams from each group go through to the next round. So if South Africa win Group A, then they would be playing here.

3 April – Winner Group D vs Runner-Up Group A
10 April – Runner-Up Group D vs Runner-Up Group A
17 April – Runner-Up Group A vs Runner-Up Group C
If South Africa didn’t play on 27 March, then they’d play in these matches (there’s basically no chance that they won’t be one of the top two in Group A).

24 April – First Semifinal
At this stage there’s no way of knowing whether South Africa will make the semifinals, or even if they’ll make it this far.

(for those interested, you can find the entire schedule here)

This results in four possible scenarios: (green blocks denote matches involving South Africa).

	13 March	20 March	27 March	3 April	10 April	17 April	24 April
Win Group A, play first semifinal
Win Group A, don't play first semifinal
Runner-up Group A, play first semifinal
Runner-up Group A, don't play first semifinal

If SABC3 were to show the Amazing Race when there was no cricket, in the “best case” scenario (Win Group A, don’t play first semifinal) we would see five episodes, and then have a two week break. The other three scenarios result in more severe disruptions. The analysis shows that maybe the SABC’s decision to delay the Amazing Race has some merit.

For the purposes of this discussion I’ve assumed that SABC3 will show all matches involving South Africa. The Cricket World Cup is the sport’s biggest event (just as the Soccer and Rugby World Cups are for their respective sports), and it’s not unreasonable that the South African matches are shown on a free-to-air broadcaster. There may have also been some insistence from the Sports Ministry that this be the case.

So what do you think? I’m a cricket fan so admittedly I’m biased, but given the choices (delay showing the Amazing Race or show it with interruptions), I think the SABC has opted for the lesser of the two evils.

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