Why do we have to listen to these no mark cricketers commentating on sky

even worse on radio 5 live, test match special

shocking i for the life of me do not understand it.

they are now interviewing the legend that is sarah taylor ffs

the world has gone mad

mute button is the only saviour

getting close to giving up watching cricket on sky

I grew up with the likes of Jon Arlott a couple of others then Brian Johnston. Women from all over the country still send cakes to TMS because of him. It must be difficult fir the modern breed. They just cannot compete with legends.

indeed but they are putting people on commentary who have poor insight and depth of knowledge and certainly are not worth listening to

so frustrating- they even have poor vocabulary and think they are funny when they are not. its journalism at the poorest level

It is a shame because Cricket has produced the best sports journalists and indeed authors. I concede your point.

spot on WD and very sad

The radio commentators do not even give the score at the end of each over.

There are times with cricket where there is an intensity that demands you know exactly what is going on in minutiae. At other times cricket can be slow and dare I say boring. This is where the rich tapestry of secrets, stories, records, history and experiences make cricket the most delightful sport to listen to on the radio.

Well said Whispering. How we are all going to miss Warnie this Ashes series.The greatest.

I need to find out more about Victor Trumper!

tis Mel woman who is commentating on sky is dreadful

mute button is on.
tbf rest are all pretty good

Richie Benaud the Daddy of them all.

Brian Johnston on the radio with Agnew where excellent as well. Talking about a red bus going over the bridge and the best teas in the country.

On Sky the best was David Llyod, also like Botham and Holding.

I miss Benaud esp

Bumble, Boycott two others as well

I do like listening to McGrath, he's done it all knows his stuff was same with Warne (RIP) they were excellent

Nowadays it seems if your a woman you get in ffs

That bookie advert with the woman shouting "get it in" does my fooking t!ts, who actually shouts that ffs it's kindergarten

Holding yeah he's another I liked

Agnew was hilarious with the really posh bloke on tms can't remember his name, they'd talk about utterly random stuff those pair, they'd be in the middle of a tangent and out of nowhere "he's bowled him, all ends up he's gone"

Posh bloke was Brian Johnstone

Poah bloke was not Brian Johnstone.  His name was Henry Blofeld.He used to  call people " my dear old thing ".
He is still alive, aged 83

miss blowers and miss sir geoffrey

Blowers that was him

"Oh I say" when a lovely mare popped up on camera

https://youtu.be/IzEBLrz3S1o

Not blowers but the fantastic Johnston Aggers "didn't quite get his leg over" video

When the commentary was entertaining and insightful

I use to sit in the yard during summer listening to the test cricket commentary the pics weren't needed because you got everything laid out anyway

The 2009 Ashes series I spent all of it listening to tms and just catching up on the highlights online after the days play

Listening to Boycott and the rest was great

Nowadays I just can't listen to it it's so boring and they're scared of saying something that could land them in hot water it's disgraceful

Cricket is notorious for sledging and wind ups ffs

The damage done to cricket commentary is more or less the same to what's happened across all media.

Once you start employing people solely on the basis of their gender, colour, religion, sexual preference etc etc, as opposed to actual MERIT, then prepare for a poor product. In some cases a truly lamentable and ludicrous one.

Anyone who watches Dramas on British TV channels be fully familiar with this pitiful decline.

loved listening to tms from oz at 12 0 midnight and then from india around 4.am till school start, ffantastic memories

The proper comms don’t fit mainstream

Where beefy bumble boycott grower 
Got woman on ffs
Shane be spinning in grave
What a miss he is too very sad he’s gone

Holdings was class

blowers had to stop because his eyesight was failing....was a shame they could not have **** up a screen with the play in larger format as his voice was a delight and i agree listening on the radio rather than watching was great as you could still get on with things and enjoy the day long game fully informed...

r1gged....?

Throughout out the late 70's & early 80's at school I'd have a little pocket Sony radio with the ear piece threaded up my shirt so I could listen to the cricket commentaries.
I liked and enjoyed those oldtimers already mentioned but there was only one Richie Benaud. To me, anyway, he was the best of them all.

some fantastic posts on here

when you think we had the likes of Benaud, Laker, holding  and Botham and we now have to listen to some woman from Australia called Mel who has the most irratating voice

shocking!!

no reason to get rid of Sir geoff, unless the england team wanted him out for his straight talking

yes slippy / dragom, them little radios and the reception used to be terrible , was it on  radio 4 then,   i recall early in the morning from madras, calcutta , bombay , bedi bowling to boycott, f engineer,  wonderful times

I was listening a bit today but had to switch it off

Two women screeching "what is happening" when a wicket goes down is cringe. A wicket duck that's what happened. Everything is an attempt to sound like we've never seen two wickets quickly before, wait until we get to Australia again, wickets tumble quickly when we're batting over there. They'll hyperventilate.

JIM MAXWELL

I am a big TMS fan and also of the BBC but I do think TMS has lost its way in recent years. Quite clearly they have been trying to introduce some quota's and diversity but the golden rule of interesting and knowledgeable has been dropped for some reason.

I am not a big fan of Sky as a BBC backer but their analysts are superb Punter, KP and Atherton have great insight into the game even Nasser has upped his game so much so that I watch Sky and not listen to TMS unless I am driving or on the run.

Question from a cricket fan but novice at the modern game.
Why does the bowling side have the right to ask for a ball change and the umpire then have the right to change the ball?
Surely, if the bowling is so moderate and the batmen have consequently smashed the ball all over the ground to get it misshapen then they have earned the right to have that ball kept in play until time for a regular change?
Also, in view of the mounting numbers of umpire decisions changed under review you wonder, historically, just how many crucial umpire decisions have been errant previous to modern technology use.
Great viewing by the way as long as I turn the mute on.  Dreadful, inane chatter very much pollutes the experience.

A cricket ball is supposed to be a certain size and shape I guess is the key reason, they have two small metal rings/hoops one of which the ball should fit through and one it shouldn't...

if you were to allow the ball to get seriously damaged and  misshapen it would probably eventually be to the detriment of the batting team as it wouldn't bounce consistently...at more minimal levels it can affect the bowlers ability to swing and seam the ball as it loses it's correct aero qualities so would be to the detriment of the game...taking the shine off and softening the ball can still be quite valuable - if not as much as it used to be (with reverse swing a key part of the modern armoury which relies on one very dry rough side and one highly shined smooth side.)

As for errant umpiring decisions...were always plentiful pre DRS |(not that it's perfect now)  even at the top of the game and in some parts of the world ridiculously so..

unlike in football I'd say video review (DRS) has worked largely quite well though the spontaneity of wickets is obviously lost at times..

Honcho,

Cricket is a game that is over 200 years old probably 300.

There are many strange rules. If you played on a Saturday the ball does not get changed why would it? Modern Test Cricket is a sport and a business with rules to make it more watchable and sellable. I don't know the rules about the ball. I remember when Pakistan forfeited a test quite rightly imho after a batsman hit the ball in concrete and the Pakistani's were accuse of ball tampering...oh the irony. We know they do it but to get punished when they did not was ironic! brentford kind of covered it. The bottom line is they can afford a new ball. Teams on a Saturday or Sunday cannot!

With regard to the umpiring there is a long history of bias and cheating amongst home umpires. Javed Miandad was never given out lbw in Pakistan until a World Cup there with neutral umpires!

Neutral Umpires were brought in by demand to stop this and has been hugely successful so much so that some teams would not object to a Home umpire now because they know how good they are and how honest.

DRS is something else completely. Modern Umpires are very very good. They get most of the decisions correct believe it or not and most cricket fans know that. Fans also know that even though DRS gave an lbw an umpire would be quite correct not to. Can you imagine football fans trying to comprehend that!

It is a long subject but I do not think we have officiating problems in cricket like they do in football where if the decision goes against your team it is wrong and the system is ruining the game but if the decision goes for your team even though the decision is quite clearly wrong everything is ok.

Sorry this probably does not help.

Many thanks to you both.

Plenty of harsh criticism on here for me , find the chats outside live commentary between the likes of Nasser , Atherton , Ward and Peterson compulsive listening.

Never get tired of listening to Nasser