Agreed...would have been nice if ITV4, BBC2 or C5 had made a better effort to secure highlights coverage. Presumably way too expensive pricing from the Indian cricket board sadly.

not sure how they can buy it when the rights for this series were sold in 2011.
nothing to do with it being too expensive or BCCI not making it available, the deal was signed so long ago that it is very likely Sky got exclusive rights to it.

Turned on this morning and the first picture shown was a super slo-mo of a bloke clapping.

It depends on the deal Sky signed.
Their old deal with Cricket Australia meant they had FTA highlight rights which it sublet (or didn't) themselves.

The BCCI deal doesn't include FTA highlights but they are renowned for being greedy (the £500,000 they wanted last England tour to allow Sky into the ground for example). ITV have been priced out of the market.

The way the game looks like it's going ITV got the better series for actual cricket and results and not just 'who can hit the most runs and never mind about a result'

Actually what bcci ask for wasn't being greedy, if anything it is sky expecting bcci to pay for extra facilites and personnel just so sky can have a different feed.
If they wanted more coverage they should pay for it especially with cricket production being expensive.

Isn't It odd they are happy to share comms and coverage now but not 4 yrs ago.
Saying that the coverage been quite good so far, was expecting the worse with the New Zealand series comm being quite poor and awful at times.

The Indian comms haven't been that bad on the propangada and having one English and indian comms at all times been working a treat so far.
Could use 2 men at a time instead of three.

Agree, there has been some great banter between the Indian commentators and the Sky Sports guys, especially this morning with the Vote that Athers was involved in.
All in all its working very well so far.

Three commentators is two to many for me! As for the banter, I dunno but I tune in for the cricket, not an entertainment show. Who are the stars we are paying good money to watch, those in the box or out in the field?
If you are on the sky satellite, is there a red-button option to have a commentary-free stream? Know in the past there used to be.

Understand what you mean, the cricket itself of course if the reason why you watch but like any other sport, the commentators can either hinder or add to the enjoyment. For instance I am personally not a fan of the new Ch9 Aussie comm line up, they are a shadow of their former selves when they had the late great Richie Benaud with Bill Lawry.

No there isnt a Sky Red Button option to change the commentators or indeed have none at all .

For BT's 2nd test there are two days of rain forecast first up.
Wonder what they've got in the archives.....

Hopefully some more of the 1990s Australia archive they showed a bit of a couple of weeks back, fear it'll be back to the 1st Test though!

KP is a nightmare on commentary his voice just isn't suited too it

He needs to say less. He's knowledgeable and of course has plenty of recent experience to relay. He just needs to say about 50% less words as all you hear is noise.

I was watching the catch-up service of the Australia v. South Africa test on BT Sport earlier and decided to go to a SA dismissal. They had to review as it was a close call lbw but as the third umpire was going through the motions, BT Sport cut away to three adverts and return to the cricket just as the SA batsman walking back up the steps of the pavilion!

Also, KP blurted out 's**t' when Steve Smith ran into the SA bowler who was appealing to the umpire for a lbw decision. There was an apology for the offensive language came up on the screen a few minutes later.

The 'enhanced player' part of the bt sport app is perfect for cricket. Can easily find the days wickets and boundaries. A real step above Sky Go app which limits how much you can skip back. So its catch up and live at the same time. Perfect for a aussie test you may not want to stay up for but have interest in.

I didn't think that was KP, thought it was the third umpire, snapping to get tha sh*t out of the way.

Funnily enough, on first viewing, l also thought it was the third umpire who said it. I went back for a second look and was convinced it was KP.

I've just found the BT online player for the cricket, and it's brilliant. Entire programme online to watch, and very easy to skip from one major highlight to the next.

Sky really REALLY need to do something like this.

They do for the ashes but that it.

I think this video of the Mannequin Challenge inside the commentary box at Rajkot gives a peek at what Wardy has access to. http://www.bcci.tv/videos/id/3130/co...equinchallenge

The video was on Sky sport cricket site as well.

interesting part I found was Nasser wearing BCCI blazer while doing pitch reports, but doesn't where the BCCI shirt on the comm box.
http://www.bcci.tv/videos/id/3168/in...5-pitch-report

Also seems like english players interviews done with Ward and Indian players interviews done with Laxman sivramkrishen.
might actually stop using Sky Sport cricket site for the videos to catch up on the series since BCCI website got majority of the same videos and got more highlights, pitch reports and other things that sky sports site don't have.

According to Michael Slater, Bill Lawry will be commentating in the boxing day test and the Sydney test.

Nasser Hussain and Botham also working for India today as pundits.
here the video.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/video/i.../1/811485.html