The wine loving John Arlott and the somewhat austere Alan McGilvray would have been bemused. Not only did they have to adjust to the advent of the shorter form of the game and World Series Cricket, they faced, effectively, a new sort of cricket commentator.
The brilliance remained with Test Match Special, Britain’s perfect synthesis of cricket commentary and poetic insight, but the quicker (and shorter) game demanded the likes of an occasionally hysterical Bill Lawry (very much unlike his playing days) and the sharpness of a Richie Benaud.
The shorter, and more commercial game, demanded a different type of cricket chatter.
Now, the standard radio and television commentator has, in a sense, been shrouded by the emergence of social technologies that have made the public the king of conversation. This would have stunned Arlott and McGilvray.
A conversation is effectively taking place as this piece is penned – on the match between Australia and Sri Lanka in the World Cup tournament. Twitter addicts are going wild with instant updates, with some watching thousands of miles from the venue of the match and others in Sri Lanka itself.
Texting fiends are running amok sending their impressions to web moderators. All of these are fed on the BBC website, which automatically updates.
The reader need, in a sense, not bother about listening to the match. There is hardly a need to watch it. A parallel universe of texting is flowering before one’s eyes in between the standard over-by-over observations. Retire, then, the standard commentator of the air, and welcome the new cricket dialogue!
The format of cricket entitles the participant to often talk about everything but the spectacle that is unfolding. The standard instant updates are made by the moderator, who is the interpreter of the proceedings.
On this occasion, BBC Sport has Pranav Soneji farming the intense and plentiful traffic. The observations range from banal musings to village gossip.
“Meanwhile, how about rugby legend Brian Lima?” poses Mark, “Somewhere near Matlock, TMS inbox”. “Not a detective, admittedly, but his name is a capital city and doubles up as a type of monkey. Almost.”
Sonali Shah tweets from the press stands when she really ought to be looking at the match: “We’re being spoilt in the Premadasa press box. The lovely CWC volunteers are fuelling us with strong cups of T.”
Not quite in the class of Blowers and his cake announcements in the box, but the point is there.
Others vary in humour and temper, though The Guardian tends to be more humorous than not in that regard. Covering the Sri Lanka-Australia match over-by-over is Rob Smyth and Rob Bagchi.
The tone is disarming at times, and very personal. And, when the commentators choose to do so, they incorporate remarks send directly to their email accounts.
“Three drinks at my local with colleagues,” says Ravi Nair. “Dinner at my local curry hourse [sic] with my grandfather’s son. Bottle of whisky finished. Does that qualify as rock and roll?”
The answer from Smyth: “I think you know the answer to that.”
Another, instead of mentioning the match, prefers to talk about his dental appointment and the difference between program and programme.
Some comments are directly aimed at commentators, showing that the public has become, in a sense, its own best (and worse) commentator. ‘Anon’ sends a text message (on the BBC website): “Ian Chappell may think Thomson was faster but he was only timed at 99.4 – Tait, Lee and Shoaib Akhtar have all gone over 100mph!”
As always, the statistical titbits are a sporting boffin’s wet dream, minutiae thrown at those who care to fastidiously compile them. What better than the written word before the computer screen? Here is one from BBC Sport’s Oliver Brett, on a run out: “In 315 one-day international innings, Mahela Jayawardene has now been run out 32 times, so as a fielding side you have a better than 1 in 10 chance of getting him out that way.”
The ancients did refer to the public as a multi-headed beast, but the union between cricket and social media has been, for ill and good, something of a revelation.
Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.
The mammoth rise of Jake Fraser-McGurk - his enormous potential and the destructive shot-making that he possesses makes him a very tempting option.
Marcus Stoinis produced his first IPL century and it was a beauty. He went 6, 4, 4, 4 to finish off the Lucknow Super…
Xavier Bartlett has been permission to extend his cricketing education with a spell of T20s in England, playing in the Blast competition for Kent…
Three-Test spinner Matthew Kuhnemann has signed with Tasmania in a bid for red-ball game time ahead of Australia's tour of Sri Lanka next summer.…
Last week, you read about the Matt XI, a compilation of the best cricketers ever to represent the name Matt. And to be fair,…
The Aussie needed every centimetre of his height and reach to reel that one in!
