Time for a new thread and with the news that (and this pertains to post summer) the minnows of the BBC have been outbid by the mighty Talksport for the free to air rights for radio coverage of England's tours of the West Indies and Sri Lanka.
On a more positive note the Strauss has decided to get rid of Messrs Fraser and Newell as selectors because of their coaching roles with Middlesex and Notts respectively. Ed Smith has been appointed as a selector so we can now fully expect five or six Kent players to become England Internationals.
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Interesting news about Ed Smith. A shame in one way as I like him on TMS, at the moment there are relatively few new "lead commentators" in cricket, most people are better suited to be the second "pundit" commentator
Maybe this is the kick up the backside TMS needs, hopefully they will revert to a more professional approach this summer and not lead to the ECB to start looking elsewhere.
I said that I hoped TMS take it as a hint that there are other interested parties and they do not have a god given right to broadcast England matches.
The West Indies Board are so broke they'd give the rights to a bloke with two tin cans a piece of string if they paid the most.
For UK Tests, the ECB have stuck with TMS (and I'm sure they'll continue to do so) as there would be a massive outcry if they went with a commercial operator, especially when virtually all TV cricket in this country is behind a paywall...
Even less cricket then.
Guess they've just changed the format so as not to compete with the T20 blast. Rather odd though
So long as the matches get ball by ball coverage, what's not to like? There's a mute button for the adverts. Both channels are free to air so no fees to the despicable m"rd0ch organisation. I'm sure a few familiar voices will be heard. Of the regular BBC voices, very few are employees as such and free to earn wherever the opportunities arise. Aggers's quiet authority will be missed but we've been getting used to broadcasts without him in recent times as he's had a far more important thing to do.
I've no idea if Ed Smith will be any good as head selector but hopefully it will keep his self-important humourless drivel off the airways. So long as t@lksp0rt resist the temptation to employ Boycott, it should be fine.
They design a brand new format which is that last thing we need and say they are expecting a brand new set of fans to watch it !
What brand new fans ? Where are they coming from ?
Ridiculous
I await some dick from the ECB announcing a one ball competition in a couple of years time, forget that lets just have a televised toss and see who wins.
T20 games these days are getting on for 4 hours which is getting too long for free to air channels audiences.
It's a weird format but can see what they are trying to achieve, along with not competing with the current t20 competition and risk driving the grounds not in this new format away.
Yeah, 10 ball over sounds odd - but its not long ago that 8 ball overs were the norm to be bowled in Australia. (well, ok, about 40 years ago)
Equally, having it 100 balls allows them to call it Centurians or some other wanky name, Fifteen15 hasn't got the same right to it.