People can put the "downtime" aspects of Cricket into perspective, yet Fat Blokes farting about at scrum time is seen as being boring and time wasting in an 80 minute rugby contest.
To be scrupulously fair, though, Hugh, this is a thread about broadcasting. The time between deliveries is filled, to some extent entertainingly, by replays.
This can be entertaining.
However, the simple, sad, unpalatable, truth is that the BBL rates its little head off. Night after night after night.
We would kill to have a smidgeon of that success, and it behoves the rulers of our game to learn what can be learnt from the success of other sports.
There is little point expecting the average joe to be entertained by repeats of scrums, rolling mauls, and even the current shambles that often takes place at the breakdown. For starters, Joe Average does not have the slightest idea what the hell is going on.
In cricket it takes 5 minutes to understand the game and 5 games to understand the finer points.