Fire and fury absent from BT’S chummy coverage
England have had a torrid Ashes tour but on TV all we keep hearing is how promising these players are, writes Alan Tyers
Currany and Craney seem well on their way to being part of the England in-crowd
Due to their busy media schedules, some of cricket punditry’s big beasts (and indeed England coach Trevor Bayliss) watch a surprisingly small amount of county cricket. When a former professional offers television viewers his opinion about a new England player, he is quite often reacting extemporaneously based on little other than the judgment of his eyes in the moment, supplemented where possible with what he hears on the bush telegraph about the bloke.
BT Sport’s Ashes coverage, admirable in many ways though it has been, has used a large cast of former players of a similar vintage, and encouraged a chatty, good-natured style, with plenty of Australian voices.
Our brave boys have been getting absolutely mullered and, instead of the commentary boot being stuck in, we keep hearing about how promising England are. It does not look that way when you are sat on the sofa at 4.15am praying that Steve Smith will be mauled to death during a koala outreach drive.
Michael Slater, Michael Hussey, Brett Lee, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Fleming and Ricky Ponting are all aged between 41 and 47 and, while their experience of crushing English cricketers beneath their heel is obviously collectively vast, the viewer does not necessarily get the sense that there’s all that much going on beyond an impressionistic onceover of the Pom players.
Their English counterparts have more distinct voices: Michael Vaughan the shrewd captain, Graeme Swann the card, Geoffrey Boycott the Geoffrey Boycott. Given that England have been so soundly thumped in the series, there has been surprisingly little recrimination, a lack of fire and brimstone from the commentators. BT’S coverage has been generous to a fault.
Much of how new players into the England set-up are judged appears to be based on the intangibles. Is he the right sort of lad? Does he look up for the fight? Did I once have a hilarious round of golf with his father in Dunedin? Both Tom Curran (two wickets at 100 in the series) and Mason Crane (one wicket at 193) have benefited from a sense that their jib is suitably cut.
This imprimatur can come and go: just ask Haseeb Hameed, who did well in three Tests in India 14 months ago and was soon widely tipped to score 10,000 Test runs, captain the England side for a decade and bring peace to the Middle East.
Hameed was not considered for this tour on account of being unable to score a run in county cricket, although James Vince, who rarely does much in the championship, and Crane, who rarely even plays in it, were not held back for that reason. Cricket is a small, closed shop and being lionised by a high-profile media personality should not be underestimated as a selection booster.
On that India tour, incidentally, England’s top bowler was a Mr A Rashid of Bradford, who took 23 wickets with his leg-spin and has not been seen in the Test team since. In the same indefinable sense that Currany and Craney are well on their way to being in the England in-crowd, Adil Rashid is clearly considered in some way rum. He is not even known as Rashidy, so you know it must be serious.
Sky Sports had got so very good at the technical side of analysis that it made sense for BT to take a vibrant, chummy approach to give a point of difference. And it has been enjoyable, or as enjoyable as results allow.
What the coverage has lacked is some good old-fashioned spite and fury. Where, the cry goes up from the nocturnal faithful, is Bob Willis when you need him?