Cricket on Sky

Don't worry Hemmsy, you will be able to tell YOUR grandkids about a sport that Sky used to show called "Cricket", when it's long gone!

 

Can remember it like yesterday pal. We were in Yorkshireman/ Groggers watching one of the tests on tv before a game on Saturday afternoon. If it had been on Sky they wouldn't have even had it.

 

Not in the morning session and never adverts or interviews with non-entities instead of showing the game. Most of us went and did stuff that teenage lads do in the afternoon and evening anyway. You should try that.

Oh and it was virtually fcukin free!

 

You think there are too many cricket clubs? I hate to tell you this but sport..cricket or anything else...is about the people...about tradition...not about the circus that Sky promotes in order to turn a profit.
You think it's good that the less talented kids don't take up the sport? Maybe they should all sit at home watching Chelsea tv?
When I grew up my Dad used to take me to Shaw Lane every Friday to watch a cup match. The standard was probably crap but I'f rather watch genuine amateurs play a game they love than be force fed meaningless hyped up rubbish like The Big Bash played by a small elite in order to separate us from our cash. In the meantime a generation of kids are denied exposure to a game that has been a part of the fabric of this country for 200 years.
As for master classes. You think that previously players had no knowledge of how to play the game without access to some Sky Sports time filler? Players like Gower, Boycott, Botham etc learnt all the skills they had in abundance at the hands of coaches and senior pros at the clubs they grew up in. Clubs like, in Boycott and Moxon's case, Barnsley which you no doubt feel are surplus to requirements.

 

But for those who are out of the house working (be that 9-5, 12 hour shifts, day/afters/nights), at school/college, what is gained by saturated coverage? Aren't they paying for something that they can only watch a proportion of?

As much as I love sport, I couldn't watch golf non stop from first shot to last, or cricket from first delivery to close of play. It's why pre match discussion and post match analysis of football isn't watched by me. Balance of priorities. Got to admire my son and his mates, it would be easy to sit and watch sport, but they all go out and play it, competitively or for fun.

I really admire your dedication to a broad range of sports HT, and disagreeing about them, debating things is fine. But Sky, or any other broadcaster who charges for viewing their product has only one priority for me. And it's not the sport.

Masters golf live coverage hours are dictated by The Augusta National club, be that on the BBC or Sky, or CBS. No live broadcast on the final day until 8pm our time. The Beeb covered The Open from 9am to 8.00pm, first tee off was 6.30am, wasn't that enough?

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

 

It is mate. And reading all that makes you realise how sad things are really.

I was having second thoughts about posting this thread originally because I had a feeling Phil would get involved. Nobody is arguing with you Phil. Great team right now and some amazing players. And yes the wins you refer to were huge. But why are you unable to just agree with others? You don't have to, that's fine. But it's not something you can really disagree with. The facts are there. '05 was huge for cricket. That series reignited the nations interest in the sport. It made heroes of some of these pundits you now speak so glowingly of.

But the pay wall that the sport then went behind has hammered the sport at grassroots level and massively affected the participation at youth level. It's undeniable sadly. And I felt it was worth discussing. We don't need to be told how great the current England team are, that's not the agenda of the thread.

[this will have gone whooosh, no doubt.. wasted another 5 minutes of my life ]

 

You say all that but in Australia, they have a better quality of amateur game. Teams like Barnsley should have more quality about them so the better players will go and play at that level. Ausse players will go back and played. Clark went back and played that level when he was still a Australian international.

 

I think were getting to the Root(pun intended) of the issue here. It's not that Sky is **** and making it inaccessible to many people. Its more the fact that some people lives are so empty that all they can do to keep themselves busy is turn Sky Sports on and sit glued to whatever overproduced coverage they have at that time.

I personally work from home now, and so put something on in the background. And granted, when the cricket is on, it will usually be that. But I actively watch, maybe 90 minutes during the day, and will sometimes watch the last hour or so. I couldn't even fathom how tedious it must be to simply sat infront of the TV for a full days play. Even when I go to watch it live, I have to go and have some dinner somewhere else to break it up...

 

As usual wasting our time.

 

That cup competition at Shaw Lane on a Friday. Was it the Rose Bowl or something. Great evenings, my Dad used to do the same with me. Have great memories of one match when an Aussie by the name of Phil Gerrans was playing, and saw him smash 4 car windscreens in one over. Round about summer of 84 I think.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

 

It's not about quality! Everything doesn't have to be about quality or cash. It's about having the opportunity to watch our national game and to play it.
The quality of local football, Sunday league football is rubbish. Do you think we should tell everyone who plays it to pack it in because they're not going to get in the Premier League? Sky does NOT equal Sport. They'd like you to think it does and there are some that are gullible enough to believe them.

 

I think it was the Rose Bowl! It was the late 60s when I got taken. A good honest knock and fish and chips on the way home. My Uncle used to be a good local fast bowler back then. Saw him play a few times there. Mind you he wasn't good enough to be on Sky so he should probably have not bothered lol.

 

How are they meant to get a better quality of player when there are less and less players to pick from?

It's like why countries like China and the US are always at the top of the medal tables in the Olympics. The odds of finding a world class athlete are higher when you have 1.371 billion people to choose from as opposed to 60 million in the UK. Local cricket is the same. If there are only 1000(as an example) people interested in playing cricket in the whole on the Borough, then there is less chance of finding the next Joe Root than if there were 10,000(again, hypothetical numbers)

You either want the sport behind a paywall, with only the more financially comfortable able to watch it, or you wan't clubs to have the best chance of finding a quality player. You can't have it all ways I'm afraid...

 

Nonsense.

And by 'cricket fan' what you are wanting to say is "not you casual lads who just watched it cos it was on Channel 4 for free, not like me, I'm a proper cricket fans and I know all the stats and so I'm better than you".

That 2005 Ashes series caught the imagination of the country, for many reasons - the state of the England team through the 90's, that Aussie side was possibly the best the world had ever seen, the weather was amazing, the way England came back, the closeness of the games and the hard but fair spirit it was played in. However, had it not been for it being on F2A TV then most folk wouldn't have known anything about it.

 

Public service broadcasters have no choice. They did cut to a Horse Race, or the news. More people attend race meetings in the UK than cricket I believe, so arguably the point is reversed. Why did cricket take precedence? Can't see any issue going to the news either. If the BBC had a sports channel, fair enough.

Richie Benaud point blank refused to work for anything other than a free to air broadcaster, such was his belief in making a great sport available to the masses. Him and Jim Laker in 81 were as good as anything done since, in my opinion of course.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

 

Those two voices, Laker and Benaud. Are my childhood. I will bet Hemsy has never heard TMS. Hard to find and mostly on am. Sometimes wish things hadn't changed.

 

Not true.

 

Was true about 20 years ago mate. But not in recent history. Everyone has access to the red button now.

 

Exactly.

 

Read that 7 times now and starting to think it might be bedtime.

Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk