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Im not a great fan of test match special anyway, but heart sank when I found out this shouty and cocky presenter from Radio five has been shunted onto TMS
During the pretty good Football previews on Friday evenings with Marcotti and Claridge, MP never knew when to shut up and yappily interrupted whenever he could (forgetting his role). Also, he was pretty transparently and obsessively anti Chelsea…which didnt endear him to me either
Clive, I too heard him yesterday and frankly he sounded like he didn’t have a clue. He talks for England and is always over excited as opposed to interested. He could talk us through someone cleaning the bath.
I was surprised to hear his voice as well and not pleasantly. He is a bit of a shouter, his tone was all wrong for Test cricket and he was jarringly over-patriotic (at least in the section I heard). Too much ego.
I’m a fan of TMS but this is one change that hasn’t worked. Not sure the boundary reports add anything either. I enjoyed Tufnell, brought a bit of fun to the commentary, though he has very little to add from a technical point of view.
And still they bat.
Aha… Good to see im not alone
I always found him pretty arrogant on R5 and certainly you could sense that Marcotti and Claridge became fed up with his yappy interruptions.
Not sure what some co commentators are going to make of him….
I quite like Tufnell but his act (remeber hes ex public school) wears thin at times
The boundary report is of no interest to me at all
Not sure what some co commentators are going to make of him….
Quite. TMS has used an increasing number of different commentators to rotate the strike behind Jonathan Agnew in the last couple of years, presumably as CMJ and Henry Blofeld become older and less able to manage all the travelling and touring and whilst Simon “Grumpy” Mann continues to maintain other commitments.
Some clearly appeal more than others. Arlo White, Alison Mitchell and Mark Saggers are all fine by me, and exude a (mostly) calm interest in and passable knowledge of the game. Mark Pougatch, however, is a little too Stentorian, breathless and quick to cut in for this largely genteel environment, and I’m not quite sure he reads the game quite as well as most or all of the others named.
The fact he has blanked me on both occasions I’ve said hello to him – once in the Sprotsnam office, and once at Warwick racecourse, where he and his daughter were guests of John Hunt in the commentary box – has nothing to do with the above (you’d do the same if you met me!). I just think he’s not quite the best person for the task at hand.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Completely agree. Lacks insight and is extremely wearing at times. Haven’t heard Blofeld for ages – where’s he gone?
Hallo Laddie,
Didn’t they have t’woman on TMS recently?
She weren’t even English.
What the hells next?
Zip of the Moors
There seems to have been a policy on TMS in recent years to include at least one Five Live reporter (Mann/White/MitchellPougatch/Saggers) in the rotation.
To the best of my knowledge none of them have any high-level experience of having played the game which I find a bit bemusing.
Is it a cost-saving measure or maybe an angle to "connect" with listeners who don’t know the technicalities of the sport? Some would even call it "dumbing down".
I quite like Mann and Mitchell, White is OK but I sort of resent even their presence when I could be listening to a real cricketer. Sky Sports use a variety of current/recent players on their coverage in addition to the big names and their expertise and tactical awareness shine through as well as the wealth of amusing stories that they have to tell from behind the scenes.
The low point of TMS is the one-dayers on overseas tours when the main commentators have gone home and the scaping of the bottom of the barrel can be clearly heard.
I don’t have a problem with non-cricketers broadcasting, in fact, the best commentators have not been international or even county cricketers. Blofeld, Johnston and Arlott, to name but three. Christopher Martin Jenkins is pretty good too. Commentating is a skill. The role of the ex-cricketer is to sit alongside and offer expert opinion. For example, I couldn’t bear a Boycott commentary, but as someone who chips in now and again, he is good value.
I agree with andrew but i suspect someone somewhere within the BBC thinks that Radio five presenters will bring in a "new audience"
My view of Five live is that it is a station with good coverage but awful presenters. I always disliked Poogatch (and to an extent Saggers) cant abide Victoria Derbyshire and really despised Jane Garvey. Just a few examples…
Too many of them see themselves as being terribly ironic and every topic seems to get back to bloody football
Bloers would almost certainly have been a top cricketer had be not lost an argument with a bus as a youth.
CMJ already a seasoned cricket journalist and decent cricketer (just below county standard) when BBC took him on.
Not aware that any of the crop mentioned above have such credentials but am not sure.Like I said, Blofeld, Martin-Jenkins, Johnston and Arlott were not international or county cricketers.
I also dislike the use of many of the Radio Five types, but not because they haven’t played the game at a high level. I just don’t think they are good enough broadcasters to bear comparison with the aforementioned names. On TMS there is so much time to fill and the moments of excitement are so spaced out, you need to be a more substantial personality than tends to succeed on Radio Five.
Of course, it doesn’t mean that ex-cricketers can’t be good commentators. Agnew is solid enough and is getting better with age. Atherton would be pretty good with time too.
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