Cricket, lovely cricket...

[callmemadam]

…at Lords where I heard it. Heard being the operative word, as of course I couldn’t watch it, thanks to the ECB’s extraordinary decision to sell the rights to Rupert Murdoch, a man for whom there aren’t enough bad words. So, in spite of being confined to the house for what feels like days and days and thus having the rare opportunity of following the match closely, I have had to listen via longwave on my old Roberts Rambler (can be crackly) or via the BBC website (tendency to cut out inexplicably at crucial moments). I really miss Channel 4’s excellent coverage and think nostalgically of last summer, when I was on the edge of the sofa biting my nails.

This match was extraordinary and fascinating as usual. When England declared at 551 for six you probably couldn’t have got odds on there being any play at all today (Monday). That’s the joy of cricket but Oh, England! Butterfingers.

Comments

[debodacious.livejournal.com]

Cricket was where a HIK's loathing of Rupert Murdoch foundered and he succumbed to Sky TV. I only really enjoy amateur cricket, in hot sunshine at a country house cricket pitch, where I can snooze and read and watch a bit. I associate radio cricket (or wireless as it remained to him) with my grandad, who always listened to the cake eating chap on Radio 4. He refused even to watch ITV so must be revolving in his urn at the thought of test cricket on satellite telly.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Ha! Then cybersofa's principles are stronger than those of HIK. He hates Murdoch so much that not even The Times is allowed over the threshold.
Would the cake eating chap be Jonners, or Brian Johnston? Your grandad can stop revolving as the tradition is carried on by Henry "My dear old thing" Blofeld.
I wouldn't turn down an afternoon watching amateur cricket but only Test cricket really cuts it for me: the variables, the drama, the statistical obsession. 'I don't like cricket...dum, dum, dum...I love it.'

[debodacious.livejournal.com]

Ha. Yes, Jonners. And Aggers because he comes from our native heath.
We only do the Grauniad and the Observer but, like I said, he wimped out when cricket became the sticking point. I don't remember any important cricket TV to me beyond Botham in the late 70s - we had a family holiday in Norfolk where I watched cricket and read Wodehouse and Agatha Christie, and read about Robert Plant's son dying - all relevant to me today.