No terrestial Cricket coverage

[Aragorn]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/4097137.stm

The cricket bean counters have sold out to Sky

Not sure how many cricket enthusiasts are on here, but I for one resent the idea that to watch international cricket you have to sign up for Sky Sports.

Another one of those national sporting 'highlights' that were supposed to be safe from subscription services.

/Rant

Also i wonder whether the coverage left for Five will be done as well as CH4 has recently.

This will just result in fewer people watching Cricket, in my opinion - I already flatly refuse to subscribe to any sports channels as a point of principle. As a result, I now watch far less sport than I used to.

Its a shame, there used to be nothing better than to stick the test match on the Beeb, let 'Johnners' dulcet tones hypnotise you into a blissful stress free state & get stuck into a good book, looking up for the replays, as necessary. Truly the end of an era

Originally Posted by Aragorn

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/4097137.stm The cricket bean counters have sold out to Sky Not sure how many cricket enthusiasts are on here, but I for one resent the idea that to watch international cricket you have to sign up for Sky Sports. Another one of those national sporting 'highlights' that were supposed to be safe from subscription services.
/Rant

Agreed it's bad news. I rather liked the Channel 4 cosy style, made Test cricket very enjoyable, now that Sky have their mucky hands on it it's going to be awful. As recent events have shown that some people at the ECB love money more than good cricket these days.

[iadom]

Whilst I have not much time for Murdoch et al, The only decent cricket coverage in the past five years has come from Sky. The BBC never did show ball by ball coverage, it was interrupted by the news or Wimbledon or whatever. C4 force you to have digital and view via Film4 a lot of the time when horse racing is on if you want to watch the whole match and if play is running late then tough, you miss the end.
I am a keen cricket fan, a TMS nut who listens to the radio whilst watching the TV.
Sky have had their "mucky hands" on cricket for a long time, the BBC, and to a lesser degree C4 have virtually no interest in overseas tours which have been shown on Sky for years.
I would not buy the Sun or the Times because of my feelings about Murdoch but in this instance Sky is the best bet for ball by ball viewing.

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by iadom

Whilst I have not much time for Murdoch et al, The only decent cricket coverage in the past five years has come from Sky. The BBC never did show ball by ball coverage, it was interrupted by the news or Wimbledon or whatever. C4 force you to have digital and view via Film4 a lot of the time when horse racing is on if you want to watch the whole match and if play is running late then tough, you miss the end.
I am a keen cricket fan, a TMS nut who listens to the radio whilst watching the TV.
Sky have had their "mucky hands" on cricket for a long time, the BBC, and to a lesser degree C4 have virtually no interest in overseas tours which have been shown on Sky for years.
I would not buy the Sun or the Times because of my feelings about Murdoch but in this instance Sky is the best bet for ball by ball viewing.

I have only ever watched the Sky coverage for short periods in the pub or other peoples houses, so I can't really compare with the old BBC coverage but I take your point about the interruptions. (I thought C4 extended coverage to end of play once or twice last year)

I will have to make do with listening to TMS and checking the scores on Cricinfo when this starts.

Luckily I should be able to see some of the Sky coverage on Friday , so I hope we win the toss and post a decent score. Always good to dominate the first day of a series .

Originally Posted by iadom

Whilst I have not much time for Murdoch et al, The only decent cricket coverage in the past five years has come from Sky. The BBC never did show ball by ball coverage, it was interrupted by the news or Wimbledon or whatever. C4 force you to have digital and view via Film4 a lot of the time when horse racing is on if you want to watch the whole match and if play is running late then tough, you miss the end.
I am a keen cricket fan, a TMS nut who listens to the radio whilst watching the TV. Sky have had their "mucky hands" on cricket for a long time, the BBC, and to a lesser degree C4 have virtually no interest in overseas tours which have been shown on Sky for years.I would not buy the Sun or the Times because of my feelings about Murdoch but in this instance Sky is the best bet for ball by ball viewing.

OK, maybe I was a little harsh on Sky and the ECB, we happen to subscribe to the Sky Sports package so we will from 2006 still be able to enjoy cricket on TV. But actually, I think you were a little harsh on Channel 4, true sometimes it did end up on the Film 4 channel but I accept your other points on Channel 4. £60 million will go a long way to develop cricket we hope so overall maybe the ECB did do the right thing, we shall see. As long as English cricket benefits that's the main thing.

[iadom]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

(I thought C4 extended coverage to end of play once or twice last year)

Only after being bombarded with complaints after they missed almost an hours play in one test last year. Modern rules allow play to continue well after the normal close if the weather interrupts earlier in the day. Sky are the only ones with a flexible enough schedule to cope with this.

I too enjoy a lot of the technical innovations from C4 but they nicked several of these from Sky.

I thought the camera that showed many thousands of frames per second that they introduced last year was brilliant.

[iadom]

I have taken the day off today, going down to the Trafford Centre soon to do all my Christmas shopping in one go.

However, I have just had an enjoyable morning watching the 1st test from South Africa courtesy of Sky. In fact Sky have been covering overseas tests for 15 years now, the BBC and Channel 4 are not interested, coverage is very good, you do not miss a single ball. The fact is that for mad keen cricket fans Sky has been the only option for years. Perhaps someone in terrestial/freeview TV ought to start a dedicated sports channel.

Originally Posted by iadom

I have taken the day off today, going down to the Trafford Centre soon to do all my Christmas shopping in one go.However, I have just had an enjoyable morning watching the 1st test from South Africa courtesy of Sky. In fact Sky have been covering overseas tests for 15 years now, the BBC and Channel 4 are not interested, coverage is very good, you do not miss a single ball. The fact is that for mad keen cricket fans Sky has been the only option for years. Perhaps someone in terrestial/freeview TV ought to start a dedicated sports channel.

I think I may have misjudged Sky, having just taken on the Sky Sports package I must admit I like the treatment of the current Test, England & South Africa, having had a quick look at work. It is sad that now Test cricket is lost to terrestrial services.

The shame I think is that the BBC which has the infrastructure and resources has failed to create a sports channel but then it can't compete with the mega pounds offered by Sky.

[iadom]

My god, that was hell, a day at the Trafford Centre is harder than an hour on the squash court, I'm knackered, still thats it for another year. A very good day for England considering they lost the toss and are ring rusty. One other benefit of Sky that I have just remembered, very useful if you have been at work all day, I am now going to relax to 3 hours of extended highlights of todays game, not a paltry 45 mins at 11.45pm which is what C4 offered.

[deadite66]

hah hah