Where darts and cricket lead, others– probably quite shrewdly – are now following.
The Premier League of Darts and Twenty20 cricket have enjoyed great success – attracting outside investment, sponsors and punters galore.
Today we hear there will be a whizzy new swimming event, dubbed ‘duel in the pool’. The event, which despite sounding like a game from Sky1’s ‘Gladiators’, will be swimming’s answer to the Ryder Cup.
Personally I find have little interest in swimming, so I’ll reserve judgement. But governing bodies have at least cottoned on that they must evolve or die.
Apparently a similar successful event already exists between the US and Australia so it would seem there is a potential market for this kind of meeting.
Athletics too has been looking at relaunching itself in recent weeks with the IAAF announcing a new Diamond League of athletics. The new series, which replaces the Golden League, will involve centralised contracts for big names such as Usain Bolt.
In a bid to woo TV audiences the series, which will come to the UK for two meetings, will focus on head-to-head clashes. Athletics toyed with the idea of one-on-one meetings in the past with American 200m sprinter Michael Johnson taking on 100m runner Donovan Bailey over 150m.
The event was a massive anti-climax as Johnson pulled up injured halfway through the race.
