Analysing the commentary

Saturday was a great day for us over at Rolls Royce. It was pleasing for a variety of reasons, not least because we were able to pick up 18 points from the current league leaders. Another delightful aspect of the day was watching our overseas player, Bharat Popli, score his maiden hundred for Kimberley against a bowling attack packed with Minor Counties or First Class experience. Bharat has been working extremely hard on his game during his time in Nottinghamshire, so it was really pleasing to see him rewarded on Saturday. We hope he can now build on that performance, and continue to make match winning contributions through to the end of the season.

Soon after his innings, Bharat was whipped away for a radio interview with Mansfield 103 who are covering the cricket in the league this year. So far this has proved to be a real success, with the clubs, the league and the radio station putting a lot of time and effort into making some entertaining shows. It has also been nice to meet some of the people who have volunteered to be reporters out and about at the grounds. Having worked on a live production team before, I know how tricky it can be to pull together all the component of a live show, so to do this with a team of volunteers has been very impressive. The individual reports have also been very impressive in their knowledge of the league and their astuteness in analysing the match situation. This is something that can be quite tricky to do when you only have a small on air slot.

This week we have seen the Ashes begin at Trent Bridge. As well as a debut for young Ashton Agar in the Australia team, some of you may have noticed another person making their bow. Andrew Strauss has made the jump from changing room to commentary box, and in doing so has joined the list of ex-England captains on the Sky Sports commentary team. So how has ‘Straussy’ got on so far? Well to be honest, I have been impressed. He maybe isn’t as colourful as David Lloyd, or as cool as Michael Holding, but Strauss really tried to do something, that so many ‘pundits’ fail to do. He tried to give you an insight into what he thought the captain was trying to do, particularly when Clarke was moving his field around so much during the first couple of hours. So much of the television punditry now is mundane stating of the obvious, or the favoured lines of some of the cricketing fraternity of ‘it was better in my day’ or ‘he wouldn’t have been able to bowl to me for long like that’.

Working as an analyser is a different role than being a commentator. The current Sky team try to combine the two, and it is a difficult mix. Trying to enhance the pictures on your screen by building the atmosphere is a skill in itself, but when you are asked to also try to make meaning of what is going on, the role can get confused. For me, Bumble and Michael Atherton have mastered this balance, and blend together the two roles beautifully, yet both in a very different style. It will be interesting to see how Strauss develops over the summer.