Sport radio's quiet revolution

As Dirk Nannes’ comments filled the papers leading into Day 5, perhaps the most important impact on Australian cricket was nothing to do with player behaviour but to do with a cricket broadcast setting an agenda.

The cricket broadcast as news has been all but bereft in recent summers. Social media has been abuzz for some time on the dissatisfaction around the Channel Nine commentary, symbolised by the infamous ‘pizza toppings’ question as analysis of last summer.

Even more worrying was the lack of dissection and discussion on the station after the breaking Clarke retirement announcement this winter straight after an Ashes Test. A one-minute interview with Shane Warne and then cut to the movie?

But Channel Nine are not the only culprits.

The ABC Radio coverage had become directionless. Since the death of Peter Roebuck there’d been no identity, with a revolving door of expert commenters and garden variety ABC sports types backing up veteran Jim Maxwell. It had lost any buzz and was struggling to make any impact.

In two short seasons Fairfax Radio in comparison was putting on a much more compelling broadcast despite the commercials, spending more money but having greater identity in its product of ‘opinion commentary’.

The ABC broadcast needed a makeover of the proportions which are flogged as reality TV on Channel Nine broadcasts.

It’s pleasing to report that two Tests in to the summer the revamped ABC broadcast is already becoming a package that is both informative and entertaining – with an added dollop of newsy-drama. This is newsy-drama that the game desperately needs in a season with not much box-office appeal.

Nannes’ commentary has been great, a left-field but inspired choice in that he’s someone who was part of the elite cricket scene but not ‘of’ the elite cricket scene.

He loves the game but he’s not enthral to any cliques or boys clubs. Frankly he’s too busy with Japanese ski chalets to be involved in that stuff, which means he’s a great commentator and the perfect counterpoint.

His comments on the non-handshake of Ross Taylor and the wider issue of the way the team carries itself was quite brilliant, whether you agree with it or not.

This was not tabloid baying, nor was it the aggressive ‘wild dogs’ 2008-09 accusation of Roebuck, this was calm and rational.

His relaying of the worldview of Australian cricket was particularly insightful and exactly what experts commentators should do – use their knowledge to tell us things we don’t know.

I can tell you from experience that it would have set Cricket Australia media spinners into a state of apoplexy. There is nothing like player behaviour to get everyone jumpy, but the bigger picture is that this sort of commentary creates debate and more media space for a game that is in need.

It should be encouraged because next time it won’t be about player behaviour, it will be about day-night Tests or some topic that will move cricket into a media space it hasn’t been in for some time.

Fellow new recruit Simon Katich also has a track record of speaking his mind, even if his views on the game come from a more traditional vantage.

On the surface the addition of Gerard Whateley has been a masterstroke both symbolically and mechanically. There was consternation around ABC types that Whateley coming to the broadcast was some kind of flight of fancy and that he ‘just wasn’t cricket’. Those thoughts have been emphatically dispelled.

While his profile may be limited to AFL states it’s a profile nonetheless that brings a gravitas that the coverage needed desperately.

Mechanically Whateley has some gifts that so far are being employed well. I’d argue his ball-by-ball calling is better than his football calling, but it’s his ability to weave a news narrative into the broadcast that makes him such a great asset.

The Nannes comments on Monday were in effect facilitated by Whateley and gently nudged along for all their news worth through his skill, giving counter-points and reason without histrionics.

It’s a skill that Whateley has been able to employ in carrying a compelling nightly AFL television news show, so we shouldn’t be surprised. I think there’s just general surprise that he seems to be as passionate about cricket as he is about AFL and horse racing.

It also makes an interesting point about sportscasters today in Australia that we are very quick to pigeonhole them to one sport, with inauthenticity suspected if someone crosses over.

In the US such crossover much more frequent with the top echelon often flitting across their four major sports. The reality is that sports lovers tend not to be monogamous with their love, Whateley is showing that the best are adaptable.

The news element is further enhanced through its lunchtime Press Room show on digital radio. This is the news angle that cricket as a sport has been crying out for, where it’s been left behind by football codes.

Members of the Geek Pack – Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon – are fresh non-formulaic ABC voices that have popped up to provide perspectives with a passionate worldview that cricket broadcasting hasn’t touched in recent times.

Lemon, ironically, wrote the online piece so critical of 9’s coverage last season that resonated so much with fans it was a viral sensation.

Deliciously he’s getting the chance to put his talent where his mouth is, so far it’s working well. It also wish to be a fly on the wall in the media centres at grounds this summer.

Adam White helms the press room and much credit has to go to him in his role as new Senior Producer of the Test broadcast for the re-shape and the encouraging start.

The explosion in AFL news coverage and media chatter came from the time footy print journos started popping up on radio and TV. There is interest that builds up when you need to keep your bread buttered – only now is cricket broadcasting following that trend.

The revamp and approach will provide Cricket Australia’s media department with some anxious moments, but they must not lose sight of the bigger picture. A new, more sophisticated news approach to broadcasting the game will help the sport infinitely, creating new storylines and column space, good, bad and indifferent, that the sport needs.

It also takes the pull approach of dragging casual fans into a more sophisticated and in-depth coverage of the sport that has worked well in AFL, creating a whole army of more informed mega-fans.

Who would have thunk that the most passionate journos would help the marketers that they seem so diametrically opposed too?

Let’s reserve final judgement to the end of the season, but who knows, if successful, the quaint little ABC Radio revolution may even influence Channel Nine in time. Kerry could never have imagined that.