More in store for cricket lovers (24)
- 9 Sep 07, 08:29 AM
It may be the - but there's no need to worry about withdrawal symptoms!
There is plenty of good domestic cricket to look forward to, including the conclusion to a thrilling County Championship - Kevin Howells will be keeping 5Live listeners up to date with the latest scores and lots of ball-by-ball commentaries will be available via bbc.co.uk/cricket.
There is also the inaugural ICC World Twenty20, where , including all the England and Scotland games plus the matches in the Super Eights phase.
Our coverage starts at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Tuesday where Jonathan Agnew leads our commentary on hosts South Africa against the West Indies. Coverage will begin on 5Live Sports Extra from 1655.
England's first game is against Zimbabwe on Thursday at Newlands, Cape Town (Sports Extra on air from 1255), while their eagerly awaited clash with Australia will be on 5Live from 1300 on Friday.
Joining commentators Jonathan and Alison Mitchell will be England greats Geoff Boycott and Graham Gooch, with Ian Chappell providing the Australian perspective.
Over in Durban, Arlo White and Lee James will commentate on Scotland's matches - plus the little matter of India v Pakistan on Friday, when Sunil Gavaskar and Rameez Raja will be joining our commentary team, while Scotland all-rounder Dougie Brown will be offering this thoughts in between his playing commitments.
Our commentary team will be providing regular contributions to the TMS Blog and make sure you keep an eye on bbc.co.uk/cricket for details of our regular World Twenty20 TMS podcast.
I am fortunate to be travelling to South Africa to produce our coverage - so I won't exactly have time to reflect on my first series as Test Match Special Producer.
But apart from really enjoying the experience, what I have learnt over the past few months is how many people from different walks of life really enjoy both cricket and TMS.
In the last few weeks we have been joined by Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe , Oscar-winning film director Sam Mendes, comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar, Queen guitarist Brian May, Mcfly Drummer Harry Judd , Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell, German international footballer Dietmar Hamman, TV historian Michael Wood and American actor John Lithgow. All of them gave us a fascinating perspective and some wonderful memories.
Alongside TMS stalwarts like Vic Marks, Mike Selvey and Angus Fraser it has been really good to hear from the likes of Justin Langer, Jack Russell, Dougie Brown, Graham Thorpe and Ashley Giles in addition to the unique Phil Tufnell, who as well as talking left-arm spin has educated us about how to save Rhinos, modern art and looking fresh despite attending Tara Palmer-Tomkinson's birthday party!
And it has been a real pleasure to work with our three overseas summarisers this summer Sunil Gavaskar, Colin Croft and Sir Viv Richards. It is an honour and a privilege to work with such legends of the game.
All of that has been part of a really enjoyable summer - roll on the excitement of the World Twenty20!
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I'm absolutely buzzing about the amount of cricket to come over the winter. It's been a depressing summer what with all the rain, add to the fact i'm a Warwickshire fan so i have seen my team going from being unbeaten in all forms of the game to losing out on two finals and now facing relegation in CC and Pro40. The England series win has been brilliant. Always said Colly would make a good captain.
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I am eagerly awaiting the coverage of the 20/20 world cup as it is going to be exciting and I hope there will be a few shocks in store.
England winning the one day series against India has been a good warm up for me and now lets gets readys for a little bit of fun over the next few weeks.
who do I want to win? well I woudl like Sri Lanka to win but i dont care as long as it is good cricket
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Dear ´óÏó´«Ã½ Cricket,
Why haven't wee being able to get hold of the 20\20 World Cup highlights for the Tv. it is totally WRONG that there is no free to air highlights of these matches. For me this is totally poor and abismal show by the B´óÏó´«Ã½ for this tournament. You should have been bolder to do something about this. The coverage although we have radio it can only be done by digital Radio. For me a poor 3 out of 10 for the ´óÏó´«Ã½'S PERFORMANCE. It is just not good enough in what you are doing for thistournament coverage. Explainn Yourselves in your defence.
Yous Sincerely Nicholas.C. Jones
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BRING IT ON!!! This glut of cricket -- fabulous!
Since I am not in the UK, I am of the hope Pranav Soneji and Mark Mitchener (since everyone's favourites Messrs Fordyce and Dirs are away in France) and the Online team will once again be serenading us with their lively commentary. Would that be true, Mr Mountford?
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I trust Scotland will be receiving plenty of coverage as well - it's the ´óÏó´«Ã½, after all, not the EBC...
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Hi Adam,
As exciting as it is with all the cricket coming up, it seems for this 20-20 world cup some of us will be entirely priced out of it, liek we have been incrimentally with so much of the game that we love in the past decade.
Live television coverage has been taken by sky, and now even live radio coverage will exist for those with access to digital services.
Why are the commentaries not on Radio 4 LW?
Surely those that want to listen to normal radio 4 will get the opportunity through radio 4 FM?
As some1 without internet at home, and with the media player being blocked at work, r5 extra is impossible for me to listen to.
Yes i could buy a digi-box but a) i dont have an outside aerial and b) even it worked with the indoor aerial u'd have to be sat in front of the tele to hear it. That leaves out the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom, the car, the bus, and all teh otehr places we listen to it!
And DAB....well thats just a waste of money.
So all our license fee £££ that you are paying your commentary team with is a waste as the service is inaccessible to most fans without loads and loads of £££!!!
BRING BACK THE R4 LW COMMENTARY!!!!!!!!
(and TV highlights while youre at it!)
Ravi,
London
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I guess the broadcasts from SA won't be available online. Or will they?
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The normal question from us ex-pats: will the TMS commentary be available to us on the Internet? Or will it be "UK listeners only"?
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I'd like to second the query re international users. Will there be coverage for us British expats? Thanks, Mark
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I am living in the caribbean(Jamaica) and woul like to know what time can the matches be heard caribbean time. Thank you
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I'd just like to suport Ravi's coment #6 about the lack of LW commentary. I just haven't got the spare cash to buy a DAB and I won't have internet access during most of the tournament (and I certainly can't use the player at work). It's all very well digesting the comments of Dirs and Fordice but they never quite manage to make it ball-by-ball.
Also, please eliminate the Australian Question Intonation. Jim Maxwell and the channel 9 guys use it less than White and Howells and it makes me switch off for 20 minute periods.
Otherwise, well done for keeping the show on the road over the last few months it has been a packed summer and highly entertaining. Looking forward to Sri Lanka.
Ben
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Hi guys
I am sending this to you raise some visibility on the monopoly that rules and milks cricket broadcasting in the United States. You can sanitize this to suit the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s protocols, but I think you can help me with this.
The summary is that I am sick of paying for cricket, through my bloody nose!
Its just beyond me. I paid $200 for the world cup. Then I paid $79 for the England one dayers. Now they are charging $99 for the Twenty20. Soon Australia will be in India and they will charge an awful lot again (going by trends, at least $80 for the 7 matches). Then Pak will be in India and that will be so expensive (lets say another $100 or $150). Then India goes to Aus, and that will be ridiculously expensive again, another $100. Just beats me. Am I supposed to spend $750 a year to follow Indian cricket? That's just nuts. In contrast, MLB.TV Premium live streaming goes for $30 a year - for all matches. FSC shows all the best EPL soccer matches for $7 a month. NFL ticket is not that expensive either.
I am really not sure what is behind this ridiculously high prices… Too many middle men? ICC sells rights to SKY Sports who sells them to Dish or DirectTV who then sell it through Willow? So every one wants to make their cut and the ones screwd are people like me?
Not sure what I can do about it. But this is just so messed up. Willow TV sucks. And so does Dish Network or DirecTV. Are there other cricket fans in the United States who agree with me? Get in touch with me at parimalpandya@yahoo.com
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I love TMS and always have.
Can I be permitted two comments. We have not had enough Henry Blofeld this Summer, is there a reason?
Also can we have more Mike Gatting on TMS?
Once again its great coverage and Ashley Giles is a brilliant acquisition.
... and oh yes Colly for Test Captian.
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Dear TMS team - delighted that we're off to the Twenty20 but totally echo the view that not having free to view is appalling considering that cricket is enjoying such a welcome renaissance, thus a valuable counterbalance to endless football coverage.
It's always a joy to listen to Sunil Gavaskar's and Viv Richards' honeyed tones, and Ashley Giles's thoughtful comments are extremely valuable. Thank you for continuing the TMS tradition of an excellent team of commentators. Totally agree with other comments on this site though- bring back Blowers: I've greatly missed his urbane bonhomie in recent weeks......
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watching sachin tendulkar taking the long way back at the lords was painful and the pain grew much when you realise that it was probably the last time that he was playing in england and it grows much when you realise that it was a wrong decision which is sending the master and it pains much when he is in good touch and india loses the match.just look at what the men in white have done to him this summer.5 wrong decisions.oh please the DARS AND BUCKNORS must be fined and punished.it was really painful.i feel if umpires are finding it hard to make a decision then its the time that the help of tecnology is needed to not make a tendulkar again out of anyone else
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Hi Adam
Any chance during the Twenty 20 coverage we will hear from the great guest commentators - Jim Maxwell, Tony Cozier, Bryan Waddle and Neil Manthorpe.
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Is it just me or has the quality of TMS suffered this summer? I don't want to hear former pros who are only invited on because of their name. I want to hear experienced and classy broadcasters. TMS feels like an extension of Five Live - laddish and lacking in the quality of Radio 4.
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I love T.M.S. and listen as much as possible.
As i live in Ireland i use R4LW. I am very dissapointed the 20/20 is not on LW and cant understand why. Any chance of a change of heart for all non UK cricket fans.
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The Twenty20 World Cup Crickeeeeet is one of the simplest, more exciting game than 5-day Test or 50-over ODI. But in my opinion this game with its present form should not get WCup status.
I did not find that much excitement as expected !!! No risk in the whole game !!! No equal opportunity to win !!! Every team does not have Jayasuria or Afridi or Mascarenhas or Gibbs.
So to give equal opportunity to each team to win the game --- my suggestions are (I) each batsman can play a maximum of 20 balls only, (II) each bowler can ball a maximum of 20 balls only.
The team which do not have good batsman but have good bowler or vise versa may get a chance to win the game.
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I fully agree with Ravi regarding the lack of Radio 4 LW coverage of the Twenty/20 World Cup. Where I live in Ramsbottom, Lancs DAB coverage is poor. I understood this was not the case when i bought a DAB portable to listen to cricket whilst working outside. I was mislead on that information. Also, how many car radios are fitted with DAB? Luckily my car recieves LW. Please, ´óÏó´«Ã½, understand that not everyone has access to DAB or has gone digital yet.
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It seems that the 20/20 World Cup is not being broadcast on LW - why?
YOu have hundreds of thousands of people in their cars with access to LW but not digital.
I have 5 digital radios and 2 sky+ boxes at home, but on the road I usually listen to LW.
Why was the summer cricket here also on LW, but not the 202/20 World Cup?
Are you now dropping LW? What will happen in Sri Lanka?
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Congratulations on not covering the Zim vs Aus match ... after all, nothing exciting was ever going to happen, was it? There are never any surprises in 20-20, are there?
The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s coverage of this tournament is absolutely pathetic.
- a very disappointed lifelong TMS fan.
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It is all very well going on about the World Twenty20, but remeber those of us who have no digital signal in their area and are therfore unable to receive any kind of match report apart from the brief items on the news.
I bet it would not happen if it was football!!!!!!!!
I agree with Mike Scott from Ramsbottom because I live in the town and reception is non existent in my part of town.
I do not have digital tv, but even if I did; how could I take my tv outside to listen to the commentary on Five Live.
Is the ´óÏó´«Ã½ trying to get rid of cricket on long wave?If so why not do the decent thing and wait until there is full access to digital radio across the nation instead of this drip drip approach to promoting more sport on 5 extra.
I feeling like a second class cricket lover because of this and it is just not good enough. Is it me or are there others out feeling like myself.
I feel that there is a conspiracy at the highest level at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ to get TMS off long wave and onto 5 extra.
What we want are answers from the head of sport not excuses.
A cricket lover
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´óÏó´«Ã½ MY COMMENTS ARE TOTALY DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS I M A GREAT ALAROUNDER BUT I CANT GET THE CHANCE TO PROVE MY SELF I M MAD TO PLAY COUNTIES PLZ HELP ME AND ACCEPT MY REQUEST I M FROM PAKISTAN PLZ GIVE ME ACHANCE THANK U
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