The best way to watch The Ashes is on radio
Columnist
By Spiro Zavos, 10 Jul 2009 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert
Australia's Simon Kaitch, second from left, hits a ball from England's Graeme Swann during the second day of the first cricket test match between England and Australia in Cardiff, Wales, Thursday, July 9, 2009. AP Photo/Tom Hevezi
To catch the atmosphere before the opening ball of the 2009 Ashes series, I turned to the Fox Sports coverage. The studio team of Mark Waugh and Damien Fleming were incisive and fluent.
Waugh made the point that he didn’t rate Nathan Hauritiz as a spinner, but as he was in the squad, he had to play.
We were then taken to Sophia Gardens where Brendan Julian and a relaxed (as opposed to grumpy) Allan Border told us that Ben Hilfenhaus and Hauritiz were in the 11.
I then switched to the SBS to find Stuart MacGill, somewhat tense, introducing his studio panel of Damien Martin and Greg Matthews, somewhat as if they were boxers going into the ring, which, metaphorically given the head-to-head presentation contest with Fox Sports, I suppose they were.
Matthews is always interesting.
He is informed, combative and opinionated, which is what you want from a presenter. But the format was too stilted for my liking in comparison with the smoothness of the Fox Sports presentation.
The SBS coverage, too, was a bit off the pace with the latest news.
MacGill said he’d heard that Andrew McDonald was getting a start. Rodney Hogg, SBS’s man at the ground, did not point out that Hilfenhaus and Hauritz were marking out their runs, which suggested they were playing.
For a news and colour man at the cricket, Hogg was a great fast bowler.
At the drink interval, I tried SBS again to see what insights they were offering about the first hour of play.
A VB advertisement ran for most of the interval.
Over at Fox Sports, Fleming, who is a knowlegeable and engaging analyst, was going through what went right and what went wrong, just what a viewer needed to know.
Both channels took the British coverage of the pitch report from Nasser Hussain and then the ball-by-ball coverage.
Hussain is informative and generally says interesting things. But the other commentators are quite poor. Michael Atherton, who opened up with Michael Holding (who at least has an engaging voice), is as boring as his batting.
The level of analysis, with the exception of Hussain, is pitiful.
When Alistair Cook was dismissed, the commentators carried on about his lax shot. In fact, he had been suckered by a shrewd piece of bowling by Hilfenhaus.
Hifenhaus had been moving the ball into the left-hander Cook consistently. Then he bowled short and wide. Cook reached across to whack the ball through point. But instead of moving into him, the ball swung away.
Cook chased it and edged the ball to gully where Michael Hussey caught an excellent diving catch.
Why the commentators couldn’t see this is beyond me. They are all former great players. But they don’t seem to have much understanding of the intricate parts of the game that you’d expect great players to have.
Perhaps the problem is that they are not trained reporters. It should be remembered that Richie Benaud was a working journalist before he fronted up to the television cameras.
After the lunch break, where Fox Sports again excelled, I went to bed and listened for the rest of play. I must say that it was a joy to listen to Henry Blofeld, Jonathan Agnew and Jim Maxwell.
The pictures they painted in words were more vivid that the actual pictures coming across the screen.
It seemed to me, as the talking and excitement continued throughout the night, that the best way to watch cricket is to listen to it on the radio.
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Ben Somerford said | July 10th 2009 @ 6:45am | Report comment
I have to agree Spiro. I’m in Germany at the moment, so I can’t witness it on TV or first-hand, so I manage to tune into BBC radio and it’s fantastic. BBC is obviously slightly biased, or inclined, towards the Poms, but still the coverage is just what you want. Engaging, a bit of a laugh, but informative. To top it off, we had a great afternoon with the bat this afternoon, so those jovial English commentators a tad less, lets say, jovial.
Aaron said | November 27th 2010 @ 12:25pm | Report comment
hey Ben can u paste the link on where you watch it
Rob said | July 10th 2009 @ 7:20am | Report comment
Summer holidays with Alan Macgilvray (spelling?) at the opening of play and then a smoother texture to the dulcet tones after the tea break. In recent memory Kerry O’Keefe’s calling of Steve Waugh’s ton on the last ball of play brought the hair up on the back of the neck in a way that TV couldn’t.
Brett McKay said | July 10th 2009 @ 9:21am | Report comment
Spiro, not doubt the SBS team would love the benefit of years working together that the Fox guys have. I’m sure they’ll improve over the series, and I’m finding Damien Martyn to be surprisingly engaging for someone who seemed do guarded when he played. And I think Stuart MacGill is doing a reasonable job in the host chair, even if he’s not so used to autocues.
There is no doubt about radio commentary though, and while I can’t really recall McGilvray, Jim Maxwell and Glenn Mitchell (and Tim Lane previously) are outstanding commentators. I’ve not seen much of Flemming on TV, but he’s very good on radio when he has stints in the ABC box. Kerry O’Keefe is a suprisingly good analyst when he runs out of jokes.
Actually, I recall Kerry telling a grouo of us a book sigining one day that ABC Cricket is designed to be listened to in the car, “even if you’re just sitting in the car in the garage by yourself, going nowhere (ahhhmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmm)”
JF said | July 10th 2009 @ 9:28am | Report comment
Is the Fox Sports coverage in time with the radio, or slightly delayed like the SBS coverage?
LK said | July 10th 2009 @ 9:52am | Report comment
Cricket on the radio is a natural fit. But I think SBS deserve credit for taking on the Ashes. It soaks up a great deal of primetime and it doesn’t exactly fall into their usual brief. If it was on ch 9 we wouldn’t the telecast would begin after lunch every day, with hideous lifestyle programs broadcast when the first session is on. Martyn and Matthews do ok. MacGilla maybe isn’t suited to the host position but he is getting better.
LK said | July 10th 2009 @ 9:54am | Report comment
Sorry, my bad. “If it was on Ch 9 the telecast would begin after lunch….”
Jameswm said | July 10th 2009 @ 10:08am | Report comment
If it was on channel 9, we’d have to listen to Bill lawry and Tony Greig!!
How about starting a list of our favourite commentators, whether they be from ABC Radio, Ch 9, SBS or Fox?
Here’s mine
Host – Brendan Julian. Mark Nicholas doesn’t do it for me
COMMENTATORS
Ian Healy
Geoffrey Boycott
Damian Fleming, when he isn’t trying to promote his own sayings (corridor of uncertainty, swingologist or whatever he calls himself)
Peter Roebuck, when he doesn’t have an agenda (eg removing Ponting as captain)
Kerry O’Keeffe
Shane Warne
ANALYSTS
Mark Waugh
Who did I miss?
FIsher Price said | July 10th 2009 @ 11:12am | Report comment
Jim Maxwell. Glen Mitchell. Geoff Lawson (he doesn’t think much of Punter’s leadership neither).
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | July 10th 2009 @ 12:53pm | Report comment
“Is the Fox Sports coverage in time with the radio, or slightly delayed like the SBS coverage?”
Don’t know, but someone who is more tech savvy than me tells me that the delay is due to the processing of the digital signal in the TV rather than a deliberate delay by the broadcaster.
JohnB said | July 10th 2009 @ 12:56pm | Report comment
I saw most of last night and about half of day 1 on SBS. I have to say I liked the Sky commentators for the most part (certainly more than the ch9 commentators as a group), with Ian Botham an exception. As I recall it, they did say Hussey’s was a really good catch (and Atherton is a working journo, or at least a very regular newspaper writer if that isn’t the same thing).
In the SBS studio, MacGill looks like he needs to do the job a bit longer, Martyn wasn’t bad and Matthews seems to have been toned down the funkyness a bit (and is much better for it for mine). Collectively, they came out with some interesting and sensible comments, and managed not to just be an Australian cheer squad. I didn’t see Hogg before day 1 – he also sounded pretty sensible in what he said before yesterday – although certainly not colourful. Maybe Fox just spend more money on it to get a smoother product?
And (while they will no doubt pale soon enough – probably tonight) those VB ads are clever and engaging!
Jameswm – you wouldn’t go too far wrong with that lineup. I haven’t heard anything of Mark Waugh so maybe Geoff Lawson in that chair? Or Warne?