With the World Cup in 1999, did the BBC use their own commentary teams, or did they use the world feed that Sky presumably used? (I'm assuming such a world feed existed then.) How were the games divided up between the BBC and Sky?
Simon hughes admitted in his book that he and dermot reeve recorded the commentary for Pakistan 2000 in a studio in london.
Chris broad did the trent bridge tests in 1997 and 1998.. not sure if he did any others.
I remember it for the 94/95 tour of Australia, not sure if this was the first instance though.
Sorry, I meant when did Sky show long evening highlights of home test matches
I was watching a DVD of English Cricket's greatest matches and for the 97 Ashes win at Edgbaston, there's a Sky Sports logo in the corner and Mark Nicholas commentating.
BBC showing extensive highlights of an England overseas test in India in 1972 shown on Saturday afternoon Grandstand (remember tony Greig scoring a big 100) Anyone else remember this ?
Also fair to say that bbc's coverage of live cricket was not that great in 70's and 80's. when they televised a midweek 1 day competition they would close transmission at about 5.00 pm for open university and you would have to catch the finish on a 30 minutes highlights programme at midnight.
Who else can remember BBC missing Graham gooch's 300 against India when he was on 299 to go to a live horse race. Probably the death of cricket for the BBC although they continued covering tests for a further 8 years.
Also Peter West appeared to commentate on tests in the early 70's but may have been dropped and then did the presenting.
I was watching a DVD of English Cricket's greatest matches and for the 97 Ashes win at Edgbaston, there's a Sky Sports logo in the corner and Mark Nicholas commentating.
Yeah, Mark Nicholas had a few years with Sky Sports before joining Channel 4.
Sorry, I meant when did Sky show long evening highlights of home test matches
I was watching a DVD of English Cricket's greatest matches and for the 97 Ashes win at Edgbaston, there's a Sky Sports logo in the corner and Mark Nicholas commentating.
I think they may have started to show a longer test match highlights programme at the same time as they won rights to show the old Texaco Trophy, so I think from about 1995/6 onwards.
With the World Cup in 1999, did the BBC use their own commentary teams, or did they use the world feed that Sky presumably used? (I'm assuming such a world feed existed then.) How were the games divided up between the BBC and Sky?
The graphics and scoreboards were the same, but I'm sure they used seperate comm teams. I can't remember much about the BBC coverage, but I think they used people such as Richie Benaud and maybe people such as Simon Mann and Dermot Reeve.
Sky had all the usual suspects Gower, Botham, Holding etc. They also used many other commentators such as Tony Greig, Bill Lawry, Tony Cozier and Robin Jackman (possibly).
The highlight of the tournament was of course David Lloyd (still England coach then) waking up from an impromptu sleep just as Bob Willis was about to start interviewing him.
The graphics and scoreboards were the same, but I'm sure they used seperate comm teams. I can't remember much about the BBC coverage, but I think they used people such as Richie Benaud and maybe people such as Simon Mann and Dermot Reeve.
Sky had all the usual suspects Gower, Botham, Holding etc. They also used many other commentators such as Tony Greig, Bill Lawry, Tony Cozier and Robin Jackman (possibly).
The highlight of the tournament was of course David Lloyd (still England coach then) waking up from an impromptu sleep just as Bob Willis was about to start interviewing him.
That year the BBC used Steve Rider and John Inverdale to present highlights shows (which is all I have recorded of that tournament), as Tony Lewis had moved onto the Welsh bid for the Rider Cup (according to Richie Benaud's book). Who presented the live stuff and was it from the ground? The highlights came from a studio (presumably) in London.
Also, who was the host broadcaster? Was it all done by Sky, or did the BBC do their own matches? Certainly the final was hosted by Sky when both showed it. Sky got all the best matches in the tournament, largely by luck as they ended up with both SA V Australia games which were real classics.
Commentating for the BBC were Benaud, Atherton, Reeve, Hughes, Barry Richards and some others too, no doubt. That list actually looks like a Channel 4 commentators list, so some trend-setting going on there.
Starting with the presenter and commentator David Gower, the rest of the commentary team comprises Ian Botham, Bob Willis, Michael Holding, Paul Allott, Allan Border, Ian Chappell, Martin Crowe, John Emburey, Graeme Fowler, Sunil Gavaskar, Tony Greig, Ian Healy, David Hookes, Dave Houghton, Robin Jackman, Allan Lamb, Bill Lawry, Mudassar Nazar, Mike Procter, Dav Whatmore, Tony Cozier, and Charles Colville (presenter).
That year the BBC used Steve Rider and John Inverdale to present highlights shows (which is all I have recorded of that tournament), as Tony Lewis had moved onto the Welsh bid for the Rider Cup (according to Richie Benaud's book). Who presented the live stuff and was it from the ground? The highlights came from a studio (presumably) in London.
Also, who was the host broadcaster? Was it all done by Sky, or did the BBC do their own matches? Certainly the final was hosted by Sky when both showed it. Sky got all the best matches in the tournament, largely by luck as they ended up with both SA V Australia games which were real classics.
Commentating for the BBC were Benaud, Atherton, Reeve, Hughes, Barry Richards and some others too, no doubt. That list actually looks like a Channel 4 commentators list, so some trend-setting going on there.
Jonathan Agnew presented a lot of the stuff for the BBC. Jack Bannister also commentated a lot- his first international cricket for the Beeb since being dropped in around 1994.
Sorry, I meant when did Sky show long evening highlights of home test matches
I Had BSB back in the early 1990's and "The Sports Channel" which was the predecessor of Sky Sports used to show two hours highlights of England's home tests at 8pm each evening presented by Charles Colville.
Who else can remember BBC missing Graham gooch's 300 against India when he was on 299 to go to a live horse race. Probably the death of cricket for the BBC although they continued covering tests for a further 8 years.
Also Peter West appeared to commentate on tests in the early 70's but may have been dropped and then did the presenting.
I remember Gooch being on 299 well, luckily I had the TMS commentary on with the TV sound turned down. I remember they used to bill the day as "Cricket and Racing" and you knew you'd be darting off to Goodwood or somewhere. To be fair they were pretty swift and it was only the flat so didn't take too long
I thought Peter West commentated well into the 1980's
Right, I've dug out my recording of the BBC's final credits of the 1999 World Cup:
PRESENTERS:
Steve Rider
John Inverdale
Jonathan Agnew
COMMENTATORS:
Richie Benaud
Saliya Ahangama
Michael Atherton
Jack Bannister
Chris Broad
Roland Butcher
Jeremy Coney
Colin Croft
Tim Curtis
Ralph Dellor
Mike Denness
Dougie Donnelly
Sir Richard Hadlee
Simon Hughes
Imran Khan
David Lawrence
Peter Lever
Sanjay Manjrekar
Simon Mann
Mark Pougatch
Dermot Reeve
Barry Richards
Viv Richards
Ravi Shastri
Jeff Thomson
Alan Wilkins
I thought Peter West commentated well into the 1980's
In the 1960's Peter West commentated on Rugby Union Internationals as well as cricket. He was replaced as Bill McLaren's number 2 by Cliff Morgan and then Nigel Starmer-Smith. By the 1970s he was the main cricket presenter and only used to commentate on the second Gillette Cup semi-final when the Beeb showed both games. He retired in about 1985 and I dropped him a line to say thank you and wish him a happy retirement - a month or so later I got a badly typed note back from him thanking me.
He could only type with two fingers but I later read that he had replied personally to every one of the over two thousand letters he had received from well-wishers. It must have taken him months. A true gent.
ps: it was only good fortune that BBC Wales recorded Gary Sobers six-sixes - they weren't on air at the time but the technical people were testing the new relay mast at Kilvey Hill outside Swansea and needed a test signal sent back!
pps: didn't ITV used to cover the Gillette Cup Final but lost the contract in the mid-60s after they left the game with about three overs to go to show a David Frost programme?
pps: didn't ITV used to cover the Gillette Cup Final but lost the contract in the mid-60s after they left the game with about three overs to go to show a David Frost programme?
Yes, I believe this was in 1968. The only time ITV covered the final.
Christopher Martin-Jenkins book "Ball by Ball, The Story of Cricket Broadcasting" published in 1990 by Grafton Books gives a list of all Radio and TV commentators for tests in England covered by the BBC from 1946 to 1989.
In the 1960's Peter West commentated on Rugby Union Internationals as well as cricket. He was replaced as Bill McLaren's number 2 by Cliff Morgan and then Nigel Starmer-Smith. By the 1970s he was the main cricket presenter and only used to commentate on the second Gillette Cup semi-final when the Beeb showed both games. He retired in about 1985 and I dropped him a line to say thank you and wish him a happy retirement - a month or so later I got a badly typed note back from him thanking me.
He could only type with two fingers but I later read that he had replied personally to every one of the over two thousand letters he had received from well-wishers. It must have taken him months. A true gent.
ps: it was only good fortune that BBC Wales recorded Gary Sobers six-sixes - they weren't on air at the time but the technical people were testing the new relay mast at Kilvey Hill outside Swansea and needed a test signal sent back!
pps: didn't ITV used to cover the Gillette Cup Final but lost the contract in the mid-60s after they left the game with about three overs to go to show a David Frost programme?
I used to love Peter West. Great presenter and commentator on the cricket and Wimbledon. As you say, a true gent and a lovely warm voice. Always came across as quite avuncular with his pipe sticking out of his top pocket. I read a story by Raymond Illingworth once about how he would often have a snooze after lunch.
I'm amazed at the knowledge that some of you have. The first series I saw on BBC was the 1963 series v West Indies, but I don't remember the commentators, though I assume Brian Johnstone was one.
I remember a scorer called Arthur Wrigley, but that might have been on the radio. A later scorer was I think Irving Rosenwater, who was a complete eccentric and when he died about 5 years ago they had to remove tons of cricket books and letters from his house. I'm sure Rosenwater moved to Sky but didn't last long.
The BBC did show plenty of horseracing on Saturdays which almost made it not worth watching. There would be three overs and then back to some obscure race for 20 minutes. Most of one of Botham's 1981 innings' was missed due to this.
A crucial spell by Botham in the 1981 Edgbaston test was missed as Sunday Grandstand went to the British Motorcycle Grand Prix. The match was turned on its head and was as good as over when the coverage resumed!!!
Also, who was the host broadcaster? Was it all done by Sky, or did the BBC do their own matches? Certainly the final was hosted by Sky when both showed it. Sky got all the best matches in the tournament, largely by luck as they ended up with both SA V Australia games which were real classics.
I'm not really sure who the host broadcaster was, but I think it may have been Sky because the graphics used were exactly the same as Sky's, but with the tournament logo where the Sky Sports logo would have been. Thing's were different in those days though as it was the ECB who sold the tv rights to different countries not the ICC.
Sky generally did end up with the better games, but much of that came about because England didn't qualify for the Super Six stage. Change Zimbabwe for England and the Beeb would have had two of England's games in that stage. Those are the breaks though.
Something that I don't think has been mentioned yet is that Channel 4 showed a game from the first ever weekend of the Twenty20 Cup. I have a feeling it was Gloucestershire vs Worcestershire
Something that I don't think has been mentioned yet is that Channel 4 showed a game from the first ever weekend of the Twenty20 Cup. I have a feeling it was Gloucestershire vs Worcestershire
I mentioned it in the "Ashes to FTA" thread. It was certainly Gloucestershire at home. As I said over on that other thread, Simon Hughes implies in his book that C4 had access to more of the Twenty20 than they took advantage of. Does that refer to more live games? Or just the following two years, when they showed no live games? It would be intriguing to know, because it sounds like C4 didn't help themselves by showing as much cricket as they could.
I just watch Allan Border episode of ESPN's Legends of Cricket that just aired on ESPN Pacific Rim. Since the episode originally aired here I have noticed that ESPN changed the graphics throughout the entire documentary to look like recent Sportscenter graphics and added in advertisement for CricInfo website:mad: They have also added in some more recent interviews, not a bad series but personally I wish they just aired the original series rather than doing it up to advertise there cricket website.
Something that I don't think has been mentioned yet is that Channel 4 showed a game from the first ever weekend of the Twenty20 Cup. I have a feeling it was Gloucestershire vs Worcestershire
Can confirm Ch 4 match was Glouces v Worces. I believe this was a late change as they had originally chosen to televise Yorkshire v Derbyshire.
Simon Hughes implies in his book that C4 had access to more of the Twenty20 than they took advantage of. Does that refer to more live games? Or just the following two years, when they showed no live games? It would be intriguing to know, because it sounds like C4 didn't help themselves by showing as much cricket as they could.
Possibly, I must confess I'm don't know exactly. I do remember that the Gloucs games started very early, about 11:00/11:30, the earliest a group game has started. 2003 was also the year that Hannel 4 started to cut games off to show episodes of Friends and float the idea of bringing Test Match start times forward, so it is possible that they could have showed more Twenty20 games, but just lost interest.
I just watch Allan Border episode of ESPN's Legends of Cricket that just aired on ESPN Pacific Rim. Since the episode originally aired here I have noticed that ESPN changed the graphics throughout the entire documentary to look like recent Sportscenter graphics and added in advertisement for CricInfo website:mad: They have also added in some more recent interviews, not a bad series but personally I wish they just aired the original series rather than doing it up to advertise there cricket website.
Interesting, I've always enjoyed that series and when ESPN UK launched they repeated the original version. Was good to see it again, but it did look odd at times when they talking about how much players like Shane Warne could do in the future knowing that they've now been retired for a few years.
A crucial spell by Botham in the 1981 Edgbaston test was missed as Sunday Grandstand went to the British Motorcycle Grand Prix. The match was turned on its head and was as good as over when the coverage resumed!!!
is this true? amazed i've never seen this mentioned before.
Comments
http://static.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/WORLD_CUPS/WC99/TV/WC_1999_UK-TV_SCHEDULE.html
Chris broad did the trent bridge tests in 1997 and 1998.. not sure if he did any others.
Sorry, I meant when did Sky show long evening highlights of home test matches
I was watching a DVD of English Cricket's greatest matches and for the 97 Ashes win at Edgbaston, there's a Sky Sports logo in the corner and Mark Nicholas commentating.
BBC showing extensive highlights of an England overseas test in India in 1972 shown on Saturday afternoon Grandstand (remember tony Greig scoring a big 100) Anyone else remember this ?
Also fair to say that bbc's coverage of live cricket was not that great in 70's and 80's. when they televised a midweek 1 day competition they would close transmission at about 5.00 pm for open university and you would have to catch the finish on a 30 minutes highlights programme at midnight.
Who else can remember BBC missing Graham gooch's 300 against India when he was on 299 to go to a live horse race. Probably the death of cricket for the BBC although they continued covering tests for a further 8 years.
Also Peter West appeared to commentate on tests in the early 70's but may have been dropped and then did the presenting.
Yeah, Mark Nicholas had a few years with Sky Sports before joining Channel 4.
I think they may have started to show a longer test match highlights programme at the same time as they won rights to show the old Texaco Trophy, so I think from about 1995/6 onwards.
The graphics and scoreboards were the same, but I'm sure they used seperate comm teams. I can't remember much about the BBC coverage, but I think they used people such as Richie Benaud and maybe people such as Simon Mann and Dermot Reeve.
Sky had all the usual suspects Gower, Botham, Holding etc. They also used many other commentators such as Tony Greig, Bill Lawry, Tony Cozier and Robin Jackman (possibly).
The highlight of the tournament was of course David Lloyd (still England coach then) waking up from an impromptu sleep just as Bob Willis was about to start interviewing him.
That year the BBC used Steve Rider and John Inverdale to present highlights shows (which is all I have recorded of that tournament), as Tony Lewis had moved onto the Welsh bid for the Rider Cup (according to Richie Benaud's book). Who presented the live stuff and was it from the ground? The highlights came from a studio (presumably) in London.
Also, who was the host broadcaster? Was it all done by Sky, or did the BBC do their own matches? Certainly the final was hosted by Sky when both showed it. Sky got all the best matches in the tournament, largely by luck as they ended up with both SA V Australia games which were real classics.
Commentating for the BBC were Benaud, Atherton, Reeve, Hughes, Barry Richards and some others too, no doubt. That list actually looks like a Channel 4 commentators list, so some trend-setting going on there.
Starting with the presenter and commentator David Gower, the rest of the commentary team comprises Ian Botham, Bob Willis, Michael Holding, Paul Allott, Allan Border, Ian Chappell, Martin Crowe, John Emburey, Graeme Fowler, Sunil Gavaskar, Tony Greig, Ian Healy, David Hookes, Dave Houghton, Robin Jackman, Allan Lamb, Bill Lawry, Mudassar Nazar, Mike Procter, Dav Whatmore, Tony Cozier, and Charles Colville (presenter).
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/82945.html
Jonathan Agnew presented a lot of the stuff for the BBC. Jack Bannister also commentated a lot- his first international cricket for the Beeb since being dropped in around 1994.
I remember Gooch being on 299 well, luckily I had the TMS commentary on with the TV sound turned down. I remember they used to bill the day as "Cricket and Racing" and you knew you'd be darting off to Goodwood or somewhere. To be fair they were pretty swift and it was only the flat so didn't take too long
I thought Peter West commentated well into the 1980's
PRESENTERS:
Steve Rider
John Inverdale
Jonathan Agnew
COMMENTATORS:
Richie Benaud
Saliya Ahangama
Michael Atherton
Jack Bannister
Chris Broad
Roland Butcher
Jeremy Coney
Colin Croft
Tim Curtis
Ralph Dellor
Mike Denness
Dougie Donnelly
Sir Richard Hadlee
Simon Hughes
Imran Khan
David Lawrence
Peter Lever
Sanjay Manjrekar
Simon Mann
Mark Pougatch
Dermot Reeve
Barry Richards
Viv Richards
Ravi Shastri
Jeff Thomson
Alan Wilkins
SCORERS:
Malcolm Ashton
Jo King
Brian Mulholland
In the 1960's Peter West commentated on Rugby Union Internationals as well as cricket. He was replaced as Bill McLaren's number 2 by Cliff Morgan and then Nigel Starmer-Smith. By the 1970s he was the main cricket presenter and only used to commentate on the second Gillette Cup semi-final when the Beeb showed both games. He retired in about 1985 and I dropped him a line to say thank you and wish him a happy retirement - a month or so later I got a badly typed note back from him thanking me.
He could only type with two fingers but I later read that he had replied personally to every one of the over two thousand letters he had received from well-wishers. It must have taken him months. A true gent.
ps: it was only good fortune that BBC Wales recorded Gary Sobers six-sixes - they weren't on air at the time but the technical people were testing the new relay mast at Kilvey Hill outside Swansea and needed a test signal sent back!
pps: didn't ITV used to cover the Gillette Cup Final but lost the contract in the mid-60s after they left the game with about three overs to go to show a David Frost programme?
Yes, I believe this was in 1968. The only time ITV covered the final.
Christopher Martin-Jenkins book "Ball by Ball, The Story of Cricket Broadcasting" published in 1990 by Grafton Books gives a list of all Radio and TV commentators for tests in England covered by the BBC from 1946 to 1989.
I used to love Peter West. Great presenter and commentator on the cricket and Wimbledon. As you say, a true gent and a lovely warm voice. Always came across as quite avuncular with his pipe sticking out of his top pocket. I read a story by Raymond Illingworth once about how he would often have a snooze after lunch.
I remember a scorer called Arthur Wrigley, but that might have been on the radio. A later scorer was I think Irving Rosenwater, who was a complete eccentric and when he died about 5 years ago they had to remove tons of cricket books and letters from his house. I'm sure Rosenwater moved to Sky but didn't last long.
The BBC did show plenty of horseracing on Saturdays which almost made it not worth watching. There would be three overs and then back to some obscure race for 20 minutes. Most of one of Botham's 1981 innings' was missed due to this.
He was, he died fairly young and very suddenly paving the way for dear old Bearders
I'm not really sure who the host broadcaster was, but I think it may have been Sky because the graphics used were exactly the same as Sky's, but with the tournament logo where the Sky Sports logo would have been. Thing's were different in those days though as it was the ECB who sold the tv rights to different countries not the ICC.
Sky generally did end up with the better games, but much of that came about because England didn't qualify for the Super Six stage. Change Zimbabwe for England and the Beeb would have had two of England's games in that stage. Those are the breaks though.
Something that I don't think has been mentioned yet is that Channel 4 showed a game from the first ever weekend of the Twenty20 Cup. I have a feeling it was Gloucestershire vs Worcestershire
I mentioned it in the "Ashes to FTA" thread. It was certainly Gloucestershire at home. As I said over on that other thread, Simon Hughes implies in his book that C4 had access to more of the Twenty20 than they took advantage of. Does that refer to more live games? Or just the following two years, when they showed no live games? It would be intriguing to know, because it sounds like C4 didn't help themselves by showing as much cricket as they could.
Can confirm Ch 4 match was Glouces v Worces. I believe this was a late change as they had originally chosen to televise Yorkshire v Derbyshire.
Possibly, I must confess I'm don't know exactly. I do remember that the Gloucs games started very early, about 11:00/11:30, the earliest a group game has started. 2003 was also the year that Hannel 4 started to cut games off to show episodes of Friends and float the idea of bringing Test Match start times forward, so it is possible that they could have showed more Twenty20 games, but just lost interest.
Interesting, I've always enjoyed that series and when ESPN UK launched they repeated the original version. Was good to see it again, but it did look odd at times when they talking about how much players like Shane Warne could do in the future knowing that they've now been retired for a few years.
is this true? amazed i've never seen this mentioned before.