Category Archives: television commentary

January 1, 2019 · 1:13 am

Maturing: ESPN reaches 25

Original Title: = “The A to Z of ESPNcricinfo” …..http://www.espncricinfo.com/25/content/story/1151771.html

This is an updated version of an article originally published to mark ESPNcricinfo’s 20th anniversary in 2013

QUIZ: identify these stars

Amateur
Cricket’s early amateur spirit was reflected in ESPNcricinfo’s first avatar. Students, in American universities, and also in the UK and Australia, starved of cricket and desperate for scores of matches being played across the world, used Internet Relay Chat to post and search for score updates. After Simon King, a student at the University of Minnesota in the early 1990s, who was the first to realise the value of automated updates, developed the CricInfo bot that would send users a private message every time they asked for scores, several people in various universities volunteered to keep the scorecards updated, later taking the time to add old scorecards, match reports and other information to Cricinfo’s database. Continue reading →

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December 2, 2018 · 1:13 pm

When Channel Nine was castigated in January 2018

Sam Duncan, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 January 2018, where the title ran “C’mon, Channel Nine’s cricket commentary isn’t as bad as everybody is saying”

Channel Nine’s coverage of cricket has been copping it from all angles this summer. Cricket viewers and media commentators alike have lined up to stick the boots in, labelling it everything from outdated, stale and boring to too matey and chummy. Many fans reckon there’s far too much banter from the Nine commentators about their careers from the “good ol’ days” at the expense of insightful analysis about what’s happening on the field. On the flip side, Channel Ten’s Big Bash commentary has been seen as cutting edge, punchy, informative and entertaining.

The poor pitch in the Boxing Day Test meant that a lot of nothing happened a lot of the time. CREDIT:AAP Continue reading →

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Filed under Australian cricket, Big Bash League cricket, child of empire, cricketing icons, performance, politics and cricket, richie benaud, T20 Cricket, television commentary

May 5, 2018 · 3:50 pm

Packer vs the ACB: Haigh’s Revelations

Daniel Brettig, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, … http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/23408427/story-gideon-haigh-story-packer-affair .. where the title reads “The story behind the story of the Packer affair”

In his acknowledgements for the first edition of The Cricket War, Gideon Haigh admitted that “the person who wrote this book was not easy to like”. While he was talking mainly from the point of view of those who would help him put together this landmark chronicle of the World Series Cricket split, its origins and aftermath, there were many in Australian cricket at the time who chose not to like Haigh, or his book idea, in a manner that was both frustrating for the author and telling about the times in which he embarked on the task.

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Filed under Australia Cricket, Australian cricket, cricket and life, cricket governance, cricketer politicians, cricketing icons, Daniel Brettig, Gideon Haigh, politics and cricket, richie benaud, technology and cricket, television commentary, tower of strength, unusual people, World Series Cricket

March 31, 2018 · 10:23 pm

Ball-tampering Earthquake rocks the Cricket World

Mark Nicholas, as Editor, Cricinfo in Newsin Asia, 30 March 2018 where the title is “This is another wake up call for cricketers”

It was remarkable that on the front page of yesterday’s Cape Times, beneath a picture of a quelled township riot, the headline printed in large bold font announced: “Disgraced Aussies kicked out. ” The Cape Argus was barely less coruscating: “Guilty trio on first flight home.” The words might as well have had an exclamation mark after them. If you didn’t know better, the immediate assumption would be that drug-trafficking, manslaughter or some such terrible crime was the reason. But no, it is ball-tampering.

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Filed under Australia Cricket, Australian cricket, confrontations on field, cricket and life, cricket governance, cricketing icons, cricketing rules, patriotic excess, performance, politics and cricket, technology and cricket, television commentary, unusual people

November 23, 2017 · 2:48 am

The Kolkata Contretemps: Dickwella clarifies

Rex Clementine, in The Island, 23 November 2017, under title “Dickwella opens up on Calcutta antics”
Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella engages in an altercation with Indian captain Virat Kohli as the umpires try to intervene.

Sri Lanka’s young wicketkeeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella, who was the talking point for his antics in the opening Test against India in Calcutta, revealed that he tried to get under the skin of the Indian players in a bid to kill time. Continue reading →

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Filed under Angelo Mathews, close finsihes, confrontations on field, cricket and life, cricket in India, Indian cricket, patriotic excess, performance, politics and cricket, Rex Clementine, Sri Lanka Cricket, television commentary, tower of strength, verbal intimidation

February 19, 2017 · 11:55 pm

ASELA fades away from Mark Nicholas

For Asela, Henriques, Cummins, Rabada, Chris Morris et al are not a major concern, But Mark Nicholas is! He has a microphone and words of praise!

Yuk! Fearsome! Terrible?

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January 19, 2017 · 6:22 am

A Massacre at Johannesburg? Reflections

Michael Roberts

Sri Lanka’s recent defeat by an innings within three days at “The Bullring” — as the New Wanderer’s Ground in Johannesburg is known among locals — may seem devastating even though I, for one, was expecting them to fare badly in this match. This expectation was based on the Bullring’s reputation for pacey pitches as well as the past history of our teams in the Veldt. After all, in the First Test at Johannesburg in early November 2002 we lost by an innings and 64 runs scoring 191 and 130 in the face of the Saf total of 386 runs; while a little earlier on 20-22nd January 2001 Sri Lanka lost by an innings and 07 runs at the Centurion ground in the Transvaal region. In brief, our famous batsmen of yesteryear had also been swamped and shot out on the high elevation pitches of the Veldt.

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November 11, 2016 · 7:41 am

Channel Nine Cricket down the Slide

Chris Barrett, in Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 2016, where the title runs “Cricket’s television ratings plunge as Australia struggle against South Africa”

The Australian team is underperforming and fans are switching off at an alarming level, with the prime-time television audience for the first Test against South Africa evaporating by one-quarter from the corresponding clash in Perth last year against New Zealand. In a concerning development for Cricket Australia as it prepares to begin formal negotiations with networks over the rights to broadcast cricket from 2018 to 2023, OzTAM ratings show viewer numbers have dropped off a cliff since last summer.According to the figures, Channel Nine’s five-city metro audience fell an average of 23 per cent in the third session of the first Test across the five days in Perth – which is played in all-important prime time on the east coast – from 975,000 in the corresponding Test at the WACA Ground last year to 749,000.

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Filed under Australia Cricket, Australian cricket, cricket and life, cricketing icons, performance, television commentary, Test rankings

November 9, 2016 · 7:22 am

Aussie Cricketing Pundits Err in their Verdicts on Mitch Marsh LBW

Daniel Brettig, in ESPNcricinfo, 8 November 2016, “Marsh LBW correctly tracked”

Mitchell Marsh’s hotly-debated LBW on the final day of the Perth Test was correctly tracked from its initial point of impact on the allrounder’s front toe, the custodians of EagleEye have confirmed. The decision, which was reversed from Aleem Dar’s initial verdict of not out due to the widening of the zone in which the stumps can be projected to hit by the ICC earlier this year, was openly questioned by a succession of television commentators and also Australia’s captain, Steven Smith, who said it was like Kagiso Rabada was bowling “leg-spin”. The former captain Michael Clarke stated on Channel Nine’s cricket coverage that he was certain the ball was going down the leg side. “I was certain that was missing the stumps,” Clarke said. “When you look at that replay, I thought it was definitely swinging too far and missing the leg stump. “He’ll be really disappointed with that. It has clipped his toe, then clipped his pad, and then got onto the bat. But what I don’t agree with is the line of the delivery once the ball hits him on the toe … I believe the line of that delivery is going down and missing leg stump.”

PERTH, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 07: Mitch Marsh of Australia looks dejected after being dismissed by Kagiso Rabada of South Africa after a DRS referal during day five of the First Test match between Australia and South Africa at WACA on November 7, 2016 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Ryan Pierse – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images)

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November 6, 2016 · 1:30 am

Kumar Sangakkara’s Critique of the Umpire’s Call on LBWs

Kumar Sangakkara on Twitter as quoted recently by Wayne Smith in The Weekend Australian, 5/6th November 2016

“High time the ICC got rid of this umpire’s call. If the ball is hitting the stumsp, it should be out regardless of the umpire’s decision”

Note that Kumar was a law student at the University of Colombo before he discarded that career path for cricket’s roadways. .. and in Brian Scovell’s (of Surrrey) appraisal his Cowdrey Lecture was thee best Scovell has heard ever since it was initiated (recent emial note to Roberts).