Shorter games are just not the same

Shame on you Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

How dare you put us through us through almost five hours of tennis at the Australian Open.

Don't you know that is the not the way sport is played nowadays.

Tense struggles that put athletes through an almost superhuman test of their physical, and mental, powers just isn't the go anymore.

If the administrators of the games we follow continue with current trends those enthralling battles of will and strength will be confined to the archives along with the black-and-white film footage of a bloke called Don Bradman.

Almost every sport around the world is looking for an abridged version of their code.

1. Cricket has Twenty20.

2. Tennis, with AFL great James Hird behind the idea, proposed a bastardised form of the game, including tie-breaks to be first to five points.

3. The Australian PGA supports a championship that features a match-play format for the final round with tied matches decided by a "knock-out hole."

4. Rugby has long backed the Sevens series, so much so that it is the preferred format for Commonwealth Games.

5. Even the NBL have reduced all matches by eight minutes.

6. Hockey are considering a modified format for the proposed CHOGM meeting series in Perth in October.

And now Kevin Sheedy wants the AFL to bring in an 11-a-side competition.

"If you had 11 top-class players zinging the ball around with 11 opposition top-class players, you've got something exciting," Sheedy said.

What was wrong with the full-length program? Is Sheedy suggesting that the 80-minutes (plus time-on) game has become boring? Or is he just trying to convince us his code to accept the attitude of the current fan who wants his sport quick, short and highly entertaining for every minute?

Forget Masterchef. Most Australians haven't got the time to patiently prepare gourmet meals. It is the fast food variety that is served at homes. And now it is likewise for our sport.

We want to devour one code in a couple of hours only now, enabling some to move to different courses on the same day. And every bite size piece of action must send the tastebuds wild.

For many sports it isn't the same. While the mini episodes of games might appeal to many, the longer versions must still be seen as the ultimate tests of their sport.

Chris Gayle belting balls into the stratosphere at the WACA Ground cannot be compared to personal examination of will and strength Alastair Cook passed so strongly while occupying the crease for days during the Ashes series.

After all, that has been the method by which we have analysed good and bad batsman for 150 years. That is how we compare eras. That is where the true sports theatre exists. Blink in some of these modified games and you have missed the whole point of them.

Sure, the McSports, those that could easily be served through a drive-through window, may have the entertainment value.

But they're not the real deal.