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It’s always nice to have someone new around, especially at this time of year, and a spot of hospitality is required.

So come in, Mark Nawaqanitawase – it’s lovely to have you here in the NRL.

Now obviously, things will be a little different to how you’ve had it over the road at the Waratahs, but don’t worry: you’ve joined the poshest club in the league, so it won’t be too tough for you to adapt.

There’s plenty you’ll recognise at the Roosters. Even the stadium is the same, just with more people in it.

Lucky for you, they’re still all from the Eastern Suburbs, so you know they won’t throw their beer at you. These people have been supping iced lattes and fizz for years.

The empty seats are there too, just not as many of them as with the Waratahs. A lot more than you’ll see at away grounds, for sure, but still plenty of space for you to gaze upon while waiting for the ball to come your way.

Things might change a little on that front compared to what you are used to.

See over here in the NRL, you might have to do a little bit more work. Rugby league is the game of the working class, after all, even if not many of them support the Roosters.

Last year, seven runs per game was your average, but over here, that’s not going to fly.

Joseph Suaalii – that’s the old guy, but we don’t talk about him anymore – managed twice that and, to be honest, he wasn’t that good. We’re still laughing that your boss gave him all that money.

Let’s hope you’ve spent the last year getting yourself fit, because you’ll need it once all the shuttle runs kick in.

When you get the ball, by the way, there’s a crucial difference. We know you’ve spent your career trying to avoid the blokes trying to tackle you, but in our world, it helps to run straight at them as hard as possible.

Sure, you might get a knock on the bonce and a couple of tickles to the ribs, but hey: that’s what the punters love. Head down, bum up, don’t you dare pass the ball.

The good news is that you’ll never have to kick the ball again, and instead, your job will be catching all of the kicks.

All of the time, too, because everyone in this league will assume that you can’t catch until you’ve caught 700 bombs from Nathan Cleary.

In a choice between Marky Mark and the 2m tall, 107kg Pommy bloke on the other side, it’s a no brainer.

Don’t expect a breather, either.

Sure, both games last 80 minutes, but over here in Leagueland, we prefer to fill our rugby matches with rugby, rather than standing around waiting to watch the floppiest haired bloke on the team practice goalkicking, so there’ll be a lot more packed into your time on the field.

You’ll have to earn your pay packet over here, Mark. It’s a hard day’s work but at the end of it, you’ll get a big cold beer. We even invented a metric to work out who is most deserving.

We’ve heard that you’ve had a crack at our game before, and that will certainly help.

A word to the wise, though – in league, you’ll actually have to tackle the bloke in front of you. Not just grab at them, but run up and tackle them like you mean it.

We’ll stick you on the wing, of course, so it shouldn’t be too hard to work out when it’s your time to get involved, but our wingers tend to be a bit physical and won’t think about running around you. They’ll go straight over the top if you stand still long enough.

There’s a good reason all the blokes who’ve been teaching you to tackle in rugby union had strange povvo accents, because we’re really quite good at the whole defending thing and have cornered the market in teaching the rich kids how it’s done.

On that, you might notice that the company changes a little bit.

You better forget the names of your old mates, because there’ll be very few Frasers, Hughs and Theos around this side of Driver Avenue. We do have an Angus, but he’ll probably be gone by the time you get here.

Instead, welcome to the land of the Jared and Brandons. They’re the lovely Kiwi blokes who’ll be trying to knock your head off on day one.

When you meet those two get used to their accents, because you’ll hear a lot of them.

We know that there’s plenty in your world, too, but in ours, it’s pretty much all there is. The Wallabies gave you the jet-setting lifestyle, but now, the furthest you’ll go is Auckland.

Yes, yes, it’s not quite as glamourous as Paris, Tokyo and London, but look on the bright side. In rugby league, you might actually win from time to time.

If you miss the internationals, don’t worry – we have them too. We’ve taken the best of both worlds by playing Test footy but filling every team with Australians, so you get all the fun of the global game without ever having to go anywhere or meet anyone you don’t already know.

You can take your pick, too. We heard you’re Fijian and Italian as well as Australian, so you can decide whether you like kava, cava or Carlton Dry in our internationals.

And if you think you’ve made the wrong choice, don’t worry: you can choose again next year.

That’s what we’re like, Mark. We’re a big, welcoming bunch and we’ll chuck you a load of money to truck the ball back manfully, make your tackles and, if the chance arises, put the ball down.

You’ve lucked out with big Trent, he’s one of the sharpest around. He’s so smart he convinced your old boss to buy the winger he didn’t need anymore and then sell him you for half the price. Genius!

Just listen to Robbo, train the house down, blow off the cobwebs, back yourself, leave it all on the field and, hopefully, take it one game at a time.

Welcome to the Greatest Game of All, Mark.

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Welcome to another edition of 6-Banner Sunday, a joint production between The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall, and presented by our friends at Homefield Apparel, where we highlight the five most essential IU basketball stories of the past week, plus take a look at how the other IU sports programs are doing.

Indiana was seriously tested for the first time this season in New York at the Empire Classic this week. The results went as expected and were somewhere between total success and complete failure.

Meanwhile, on the women’s side, it was the best few days of the year so far, with a couple of massive victories. Also, Assembly Call had shows and an update on IU’s games streaming exclusively on Peacock. We will as usual conclude with a look at how other sports are doing led by Men’s soccer advancing to their ninth consecutive Sweet 16.

Here is what’s in this week’s edition:

• Hoosiers hold off Louisville
• IU dominated by UConn
• Women’s basketball beats Tennessee and Princeton in Fort Myers
• Assembly Call shows
• Peacock offering a Black Friday discount
• Hoosier Roundup – Men’s soccer advances in NCAA tournament

IU men’s basketball will play five games this season on Peacock and the women will play seven, making the streaming service essential for IU basketball fans. Sign up for Peacock using Inside the Hall’s link to help support the site and also enjoy Big Ten hoops all season long! (The link is an Inside the Hall affiliate link, so a commission will be paid to ITH if you click and subscribe to Peacock. Alex and the ITH team appreciate your support!)

Banner #1: Hoosiers hold off Louisville

IU was able to leave New York with a victory over the Cardinals in their second game of the Empire Classic. By doing so they improved to 4-1 on the season.

The contest went back-and-forth, but the Hoosiers closed on a 13-2 run to win 74-66. Indiana employed a zone defense late to turn the game around. By doing so, they avoided an embarrassing defeat to an opposing side that barely beat UMBC and was blown out by Chattanooga. Malik Reneau and Kel’el Ware continued to look strong in the post and finished with 12 points each. However, the team’s lack of shooters is causing the opposition to clog the paint and make life difficult for IU’s duo inside.

Afterward, Hoosier coach Mike Woodson spoke, Ryan Corazza wrote the Minute After and Film Session, Alex Bozich penned Five Takeaways, and William McDermott put together a column about the late switch to zone defense. Finally, Assembly Call had its postgame polls and email as well as a Coach’s Corner, Film Room, and article about whether to be optimistic about the play so far.

Banner #2: IU dominated by UConn

IU hung tough with reigning national champion Connecticut for a while and was within seven points through 35 minutes of play. However, the Huskies pulled away late for a 77-57 win as the Hoosiers suffered their first defeat.

Reneau led the team with 18 points in the post while Ware added 11. However, poor outside shooting was the issue, as it has been all year, as the Cream and Crimson went just 3-for-13 from behind the arc.

Afterward, Woodson spoke, Ryan Corazza wrote the Minute After, Alex Bozich penned Five Takeaways, and Amanda Foster put together a column about the defeat being a wake-up call. Finally, Assembly Call went Inside The Numbers and had its postgame polls, email, and Film Room.

The Hoosiers return to action today at 4:30 pm against Harvard in a pseudo-home game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Crimson are likely better than any opponent IU has faced so far outside of UConn and sit at 5-1 overall and inside the KenPom top 150.

Banner #3: Women’s basketball beats Tennessee and Princeton in Fort Myers

After failing an early season test at Stanford miserably, things have brightened considerably for Indiana. After falling to 21st nationally due to the Stanford loss, the Hoosiers have since looked like the team that spent much of last season in the top five nationally and won the Big Ten outright.

They started the week last Sunday by defeating a lesser Lipscomb squad. However, the real measuring stick came over the Thanksgiving holiday. The Hoosiers went to Fort Myers Florida and controlled contests against Tennessee and Princeton who have the potential to make a deep run in March. Led by the post play of Mackenzie Holmes and the outside shooting of Yarden Garzon and Sara Scalia, the Hoosiers defeated the Lady Vols 71-57 on Thanksgiving before knocking off the Tigers 72-63 just over 36 hours later.

Indiana is now 5-1 and figures to make a big jump in the polls this week. They do not have another tough matchup until New Year’s Eve as they look to put together a long winning steak. Their next contest is this Thursday at Maine (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+). This will be a homecoming for Holmes who grew up outside of Portland where the game is being played.

Banner #4: Assembly Call shows

Assembly Call was on-air twice this week. This included postgame shows following the contests against UConn and Louisville.

Also, Doing The Work was on-air several times in the last few days. This included episodes following the Lipscomb and Tennessee games.

Banner #5: Peacock offering a Black Friday discount

A huge change in the Big Ten’s new TV deal will see a handful of games exclusively streamed on Peacock rather than traditional cable. This includes 12 matchups featuring the Hoosiers. Seven women’s contests starting in January (including Iowa, Maryland, and Purdue) and five men’s games beginning in December (including Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin) will be seen there.

Now Peacock is offering a Black Friday deal through tomorrow where these matchups can be seen for a discounted rate. Instead of the regular $5.99 a month or $59.99 for a year, it can now be bought for $1.99 monthly with the promo code BIGDEAL or $19.99 annually with the code YEARLONG.

Banner #6: Hoosier Roundup – Men’s soccer advances in NCAA tournament

• Men’s soccer beat Wake Forest on the road last Sunday to advance to their ninth consecutive Sweet 16. They head to Virginia today (1 pm ESPN+) with a spot on the line in the Elite Eight next weekend. Unlike the last couple of rounds, this matchup would take place within driving distance of most IU fans should Indiana advance. The potential contest would be either in the Hoosier State (Bloomington or South Bend) or just north of it in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Also, former star Pat Noonan of FC Cincinnati was named MLS’ coach of the year.

• Football fell 35-31 in the Bucket game to close the season and now the attention turns to whether Tom Allen will be kept as head coach. Also, a former Hoosier was named as a recipient of the Ford-Kinnick Leadership Award.

• Volleyball swept the weekend vs. Michigan and Michigan State to close the season after falling to highly-ranked Wisconsin last Sunday. They conclude 2023 at 21-12 overall and 11-9 in the league. It is the first time the squad has finished at or above .500 in Big Ten play in over 20 years. However, with a poor RPI and only a couple of signature wins, their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2010 is unlikely (there is no conference tournament in volleyball to improve their resume or receive an automatic bid).

• Wrestling competed at the Keystone Classic.

• Men’s tennis announced their 2024 schedule.

• Women’s soccer had a former player receive the Leanne Grotke Award and six current Hoosiers named CSC Academic All-District.

• Swimming and diving had three athletes receive weekly awards from the Big Ten.

Thanks for your continued support for The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall. We’ll be back next weekend with a new roundup.

Now go enjoy yourself a 6-banner Sunday.

Aaron (Ari) Shifron
Assembly Call Contributor

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

Filed to:

Denver’s Nikola Jokic remains the front-runner to win the 2023-24 NBA MVP award. 

Jokic, who leads the league in rebounding (13.1 per game) and is tenth in scoring (27.4), is the current betting favorite at +200 after being at +400 earlier this month. 

Jokic is seeking his third MVP award. 

Dallas’ Luka Doncic remains second on the odds list but dropped to +550 from +470.

RELATED: NBA In-Season Tourney odds tracker

Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo (2019-20) of the Milwaukee Bucks saw his odds drop from +1100 to +900.

Another two-time MVP, Golden State’s Steph Curry (2015-16), saw his MVP odds tumble recently from +1400 to +2300.

Let’s look at the latest odds of winning the prestigious award.

ODDS TO WIN 2024 NBA MVP*

Nikola Jokic, Nuggets: +200 (bet $10 to win $30 total)
Luka Doncic, Mavericks: +550 (bet $10 to win $65 total)
Joel Embiid, 76ers: +700 (bet $10 to win $80 total)
Jayson Tatum, Celtics: +850 (bet $10 to win $95 total)
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks: +900 (bet $10 to win $100 total)
Steph Curry, Warriors: +2300 (bet $10 to win $240 total)
Kevin Durant, Suns: +2300 (bet $10 to win $240 total)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder: +2300 (bet $10 to win $240 total) 

*odds as of 11/22/23

FOX Sports Betting Analyst Jason McIntyre weighed in on the award (Editor’s Note: Expert’s MVP pick made in July):

Only three players stand out to me early as possibly actionable MVP bets to make for the upcoming season.

Jayson Tatum, Celtics

Having advanced to the conference finals in four of the last six years, the Celtics are one of my favorites to win the title, and Tatum is the primary reason. I’m buying the trade of Marcus Smart as a win for the Celtics and Tatum. It will enable the 25-year-old to be the true leader of this team, something Smart has been since entering the league. 

Tatum’s points, rebounds and assists have all gone up each year he’s been in the league, and his 30-8-4 were all career highs last year. A first-team All-NBA player each of the last two seasons, I expect him to win the MVP — and an NBA title.

PICK: Jayson Tatum (+800 at time of pick) to win MVP

Nikola Jokic, Nuggets

The two-time MVP is coming off an NBA title, Finals MVP, and the unofficial title of best player in the NBA. He’s the favorite for a third MVP, largely on the heels of an insane playoff run where he averaged 30-12-9 over 20 games and also hit a staggering 46% of 3-pointers. So why not bet on him? 

You can’t quantify his desire now that he already has a title and his trophy case has everything. Knowing he’s done it all, will we see him pull back in the regular season to save himself for the postseason? We saw that late last season, and it worked. Either way, he’s the best player in the game, so worth a sprinkle.

PICK: Nikola Jokić (+430 at time of pick) to win MVP

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder 

If I’m looking for a super sleeper to win the MVP next year, it has to be SGA. Having just turned 25, he is coming off an excellent season in which he averaged a career-high 31 points and was first-team All-NBA. 

Before you scoff, remember the Sacramento Kings improved by 18 wins last year, and the Thunder might be a breakout candidate, as they look to build on the play-in appearance last year while adding Chet Holmgren to the starting lineup.

PICK: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (+1700 at time of pick) to win MVP

Who do you like to win NBA MVP? Stay tuned to FOX Sports for all NBA news. 

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On this week’s edition of How Can This Benefit My Brand, you’ll be locked into the following pieces of value 

 How to optimise storytelling on TikTok

 Ways to maximise YouTube SEO

 Improving accessibility through IG reels

 The true value behind user-generated content on X

Now that’s how you tell a story on TikTok

Casuals Corner MMA has produced this phenomenal TikTok illustrating Francis Ngannou’s journey to combat sports stardom 

I must say, I got quite emotional with Will narrating this from an emotional perspective, but I get exactly what made this tick; the following involves 

A smooth and peaceful audio to get the audience engaged in the tone of the video

a transition of images illustrating the journey of Francis’ legacy accompanied by a voiceover 

a caption that doesn’t heavily involve many characters and encourages people to listen

 responding to as many comments as possible to optimise the TikTok algorithm to help the content crawl to the top of social feeds

What’s even more powerful about this story is that it’s so easy to produce; that’s the great thing about TikTok. Will literally took his probably on his phone, accompanied by a compilation of images and a script 

Demitrious Johnson leads by example on how to optimise YouTube SEO

For any fighters/brands looking to optimise their YouTube channels, I can strongly recommend using @MightyMouse as a prime example from a brand marketing perspective 

Here is why 

CONSISTENTLY BRANDED THUMBNAILS 

As you can see with each of his YouTube uploads, he has a consistent style with how his thumbnails are presented; this can be a deal breaker with regards to someone clicking through to watch a video or not 

OPTIMISING YOUTUBE SEO VIA THE DESCRIPTION SECTION 

Mighty Mouse has a lot of tick boxes here which optimise visibility, SEO and referral traffic to other parts of his brand; this involves the following 

 3 hashtags relating to the subject of the video

 a summary of the video in a few sentences

 links to his social media channels alongside sponsorship leads he’s affiliated to

 further hashtags that are linked to his brand

If these tactics are followed consistently, then this will pay big dividends towards growing your brand on YouTube 

I appreciate how much time this takes; however, I’m here to help. 

Thefashionjogger demonstrates how to optimise Instagram Reels

As a fitness influencer, the fashionjogger, also known as Lisa Migliorini, has got her Instagram game on point from a marketing perspective 

This reel in itself is an example; Lisa is an Italian long-distance runner who has uploaded a reel which literally lasts for a few seconds of herself running through the streets of New York accompanied by the one and only Jay Z ft. Beyonce’s- Empire State of Mind track, which is essentially the national anthem of the state 

Adding to this, something that particularly stood out to me was how she had two captions in two different languages 

As she’s originally from , she’ll have an Italian audience following her content and has decided to make this culturally sensitive towards them. 

From a social media marketing perspective, social media algorithms appreciate accessibility with regard to content production. What this means is the more inclusive and accessible your content is for different audiences, the more likely it is for it to get ranked higher on your desired audiences’ feeds when scrolling 

X is where it’s at for user-generated content

This has been a theme I’ve noticed for a very long time on X! It’s driven via user-generated content. For combat sports, in particular, fan art is becoming increasingly popular. 

By endorsing user-generated content as a fighter or a brand, you’re well on your way to building a community more likely to engage in your content. This can be transferred through various avenues, such as reactively replying to comments, pinning your favourite comments from fans on occasion, offering a creative challenge to your audience before an event, etc. 

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Now that’s enough from me, feel free to give me any other insights to content I may have missed out on 

Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas will be sidelined at least two weeks with a left ankle sprain.

An MRI confirmed the injury to one of this season’s breakout stars, the Nets announced Thursday.

He was injured when he stepped on Clippers forward P.J. Tucker’s foot in the third quarter in Wednesday’s 100-93 win at home against Los Angeles.

The third-year player is averaging a team-high 26.9 points with 3.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists through eight games (seven starts) this season.

Brooklyn’s 2021 first-round pick (27th overall) averaged 8.5 points as a rookie and 10.6 per game in 2022-23.

ICC World Cup 2023 Points Table [Rank 1 to 10], Sri Lanka ELIMINATED After BAN vs SL Match | ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 Standings: Bangladesh defeated Sri Lanka by three wickets at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, in the 38th match of World Cup 2023. After Winning the match, Bangladesh jumped to the seventh spot in the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 Points Table with four points.

Sri Lanka lost their sixth match of this tournament, and now, they are in the 8th position with four points in the World Cup 2023 Points Table. They have a net run rate of -1.160, and now, Sri Lanka got eliminated from the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup.

In the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 Points Table, India is at the top position with 16 points and a fantastic net run rate of +2.456. South Africa stands at second spot with 12 points and a good net run rate of +1.376 in the World Cup 2023 Points Table.

Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka Match Summary:

Sri Lanka batted first and scored 279 runs on the scoreboard in 49.3 overs. Charith Asalanka played a responsible inning for his team as he scored 108 runs in 105 balls with six fours and five sixes, whereas Sadeera Samawickrama scored 41 runs in 42 balls.

From the Bangladesh Bowling Department, Tanzim Hasan Sakib took three wickets, whereas Shoriful Islam and Shakib Al Hasan took two wickets each.

Bangladesh batted well and easily chased the target in 41.1 overs and won their second match of ICC Men’s ODI World Cup. Najmul Hasan Shanto played a phenomenal innings of 90 runs, whereas skipper Shakib Al Hasan scored 82 runs.

ICC World Cup 2023 Most Runs:

Position	Player	Runs	Average
1	Quinton de Kock	550	68.75
2	Virat Kohli	543	108.60
3	Rachin Ravindra	523	74.71
4	Rohit Sharma	442	55.25
5	David Warner	428	61.14

ICC World Cup 2023 Most Wickets:

Position	Player	Wickets	Economy
1	Dilshan Madushanka	21	6.48
2	Adam Zampa	19	5.52
3	Marco Jansen	17	6.41
4	Mohd. Shami	16	4.30
5	Shaheen Shah Afridi	16	5.22

ICC World Cup 2023 Points Table:

Rank	Team	Matches	Won	Loss	N/R	Points	NRR
1	India	8	8	0	0	16	+2.456
2	South Africa	8	6	2	0	12	+1.376
3	Australia	7	5	2	0	10	+0.924
4	New Zealand	8	4	4	0	8	+0.398
5	Pakistan	8	4	4	0	8	+0.030
6	Afghanistan	7	4	3	0	8	-0.330
7	Bangladesh	8	2	6	0	4	-1.142
8	Sri Lanka	8	2	6	0	4	-1.160
9	Netherlands	7	2	5	0	4	-1.398
10	England	7	1	6	0	2	-1.504

Read This Also: AUS vs AFG Dream11 Prediction World Cup 2023 | Australia vs Afghanistan Dream11 Team, Wankhede Stadium Mumbai Pitch Report

For More, Check The Official Site: ICC

If you’re an Australian, and at some point in your life have watched a cricket video on YouTube, chances are it was one of Robelinda’s.

For the uninitiated, Rob Moody and his channel ‘Robelinda2’ – so named due to a copyright strike that killed its first iteration – is as close as our sport has to a time machine.

Having recorded cricket matches, often ball by ball, since childhood in the 1980s, Moody has archived the best bits, clipped them up, and offers them for free on YouTube – his only plea for his endeavours to be funded a somewhat hidden option to buy him a coffee on his ‘About’ page.

So if you fancy seeing 18 minutes of Ricky Ponting pull shots in all their glory…

… or David Warner sub fielding for Australia in a Test match some three years before he became famous…

… or Shane Warne rolling down some gentle meds while wearing a floppy…

… then Robelinda2 is where you’d go.

It’s not an exaggeration to say he’s one of Australian cricket’s most irreplaceable contributors – more than any private citizen, and most certainly more than even Cricket Australia itself, he ensures that thousands upon thousands of hours of the sport played in the days before Kayo and instant replays and social media highlights, are made available for a new generation to enjoy, and preserve their memory.

Which is why when, almost on a yearly basis, a spate of copyright infringement notices crop up to remove old videos, and sometimes even threaten the extinction of his channel, the reaction is always the same: outrage, disgust, and just a hint of devastation that one of Australian sport’s great repositories is again under threat.

This time, the stakes appear higher than ever: according to a post from Moody himself, more than 400 videos in the space of the last week have been removed from his channel, including some old favourites such as Jason Gillespie’s famous 201 not out against Bangladesh and Viv Richards’ iconic 189 in an ODI against England back in 1984 – both videos, it must be said, that are not available to view anywhere else on the internet, for free or otherwise.

The major culprit appears to be ‘LDS Sports’, a broadcasting conglomerate so obscure that if you Google them literally the first page of search results are for the Mormon church.

Recently, however, they have been joined on the warpath by ‘MarhabaCricketIndia’ as a comment on a YouTube video – and not, as is standard legal practice, via a cease and desist letter – commanding Moody (whose channel name, incidentally, they have misspelled multiple times) to remove all videos pertaining to Bangladesh matches especially.

(image via Robelinda2)

In conduct that would be disgraceful in any context, never mind against a man doing nothing wrong and also providing a public service seemingly beyond any of the international cricket boards or their rights holders, they describe Moody as a ‘persistent offender’, warning him that it is his ‘LAST CHANCE’ and to not ‘test our patience any further’.

Bafflingly, their threat is for him to either take down his videos, and if he doesn’t, they will… demand they be taken down – while their finishing claim that ‘the only reason we haven’t completely shut you down is out of respect for the cricket community’ is utterly ludicrous given the previous four paragraphs filled with nothing but hostility.

Broadly speaking, broadcast rights owners have the right to protect their own property. That just rings entirely hollow when, in 99 per cent of cases, they have no interest in making that property publicly available off their own bat – even if I imagine there are many thousands if not millions of people worldwide who would be fine paying a subscription fee to have access to past cricket matches on demand.

In other walks of life, corporations will and have permitted YouTube channels to keep their videos up, compromising by taking control of their monetisation and profiting from them.

One such channel, ‘WILTY? Nope!‘, a lovingly-produced fan-made channel posting the best clips from the popular British panel show, ‘Would I Lie to You?’ has an arrangement like this with the show’s rights holders, allowing their many thousands of videos big and small to remain up and freely available to the public.

If ‘LDS Sports’ or any of the other rights holders were to do this, that would be one thing – and given Moody’s channel has a whopping 1.2 million subscribers and his videos generate millions of views, it would certainly be of financial benefit to do this.

But to simply demand offending videos be removed without any interest whatsoever in making them available themselves is maddeningly short-sighted from the rights holders going after Moody – not just for their own back pockets, but for the game they are paying so much to broadcast.

Cricket counts itself as the world’s second-biggest sport by virtue of its status in India, the world’s most populous nation: yet the game cannot be said to be in rude health, especially away from those shores.

One surefire way of increasing, or at least maintaining, its popularity is to allow archived footage to survive and be widely distributed, allowing a link to the glory days in a way other sports are beginning to catch onto – you can watch, for instance, the entire 1966 FIFA World Cup Final on YouTube, while all 11 hours, 21 minutes and 54 seconds of John Isner’s famous Wimbledon clash with Nicolas Mahut from 2010 can be seen on the grand slam’s own channel.

Perhaps the best example is the NBA – there are thousands of fan-made YouTube and social media accounts on the web distributing highlights for free around the world, encouraged by the league because they know the exposure is both far more than they could achieve on their own and exceedingly healthy for the competition.

It’s not just Moody’s takedown notices that are proof of cricket being left behind in this race for online eyeballs – it’s in the fact that unlike at the 2019 ODI World Cup, the ICC is not making match highlights available on YouTube at the 2023 tournament, despite those videos being some of the most popular in their channel’s history (presumably because the Indian host broadcasters are loath to allow any of their content to exist elsewhere).

ESPNCricinfo assistant editor Sidharth Monga got the point across perfectly in this 2020 article following another spate of Moody takedown notices:

It is natural for rights holders to be possessive about clips from recent matches. A little less explicably, and depending on where you look, between them boards, broadcasters and the ICC hold tight to themselves archival footage of older games. None of these parties wants to part with the footage for free, but nor do they have subscription services for people to access that footage. There is hardly a place online where you can watch an old cricket match. Even for a fee.

There is a reason why Moody is so wildly popular – he has more than 700,000 subscribers on YouTube, which is more than many broadcasters do, and more than a tenth of CA, which is the best board at fan engagement online, does. He actually shows cricket at the viewer’s convenience. That spreads cricket. For arguably short-sighted – if understandable – reasons, cricket doesn’t want to make footage of old cricket available in an unrestricted manner to digitally minded fans, in an age when it can do with the oxygen of publicity.

There is some hope for Moody and his channel: in 2020, Cricket Australia themselves sent him a copyright infringement notice and temporarily had his YouTube account suspended, only for then-CA chairman Earl Eddings to respond to nationwide outrage by rescinding the strike, claiming it was sent ‘in error’.

Since then, CA have become, according to reports, able to provide Moody assistance against some (but not all) of his copyright strikes: it would behoove the ICC to follow a similar path.

Moody isn’t showing current highlights that would discourage cricket fans from buying a subscription or watching ongoing matches live: for nearly all his videos, his channel is the only place on the internet where it is possible to view them.

The benefits of his labours far, far outweigh the drawbacks (if indeed there are any) – both financially in the case of the current rights holders, and in the case of the game as a whole, in providing it and its history badly needed exposure.

For as long as the ICC permits its rights holders to hold cricket and its past hostage, burying it where nobody can ever witness it again, the game suffers.

Hopefully the case of Moody will inspire some action to at least stem the bleeding and avoid the total destruction of a wonderful source of entertainment, information and history for good – but I’m not holding my breath.