On the field, Australian cricket is now doing a lot better than it was last year when the ball-tampering scandal led to the suspensions of Steve Smith, Dave Warner and Cameron Bancroft. That brought forth several books, most notably Geoff Lemon's Steve Smith's Men – Behind Australian Cricket's Fall (Hardie Grant), which probed the behind-the-scenes shenanigans at Cricket Australia and exposed the ugly corporate culture that has cast a long shadow across the nation's No 1 game.
As we enter the 2019/20 season, it's unlikely we'll hear much about such matters during the telecasts of the matches. Fox's press release for its "summer of cricket" offers a clear indication of its intentions, "as the Australian Test team embarks on a successful home summer with Steve Smith and David Warner back on board after retaining the Ashes in England".
Upbeat commentary teams at Fox and Seven, largely made up of ex-players, will be toeing the party line and talking up the here-and-now: a vast array of men's matches against opponents from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand, and women's against India, England and Sri Lanka. Not to forget the Big Bash League games. Seven is covering a selection; Fox everything (as well as a host of other international matches and talk shows).
With an abundance of statistics at their fingertips and whiz-bang visual technology that allows them to show as well as tell, our guides to the game will do what they're being paid to try to do: generate interest in and excitement about what we're watching, rather than mulling over what's gone wrong offscreen.
Ash Gardner, Ellyse Perry, David Warner, Adam Gilchrist, Isa Guha, Shane Warne, Pat Cummins and Matthew Wade at the Foxtel Summer of Cricket launch at the SCG.Credit:AAP
If last season's form is any guide, at their best, they'll examine the dynamic of the matches with insight, skill and wit. And this year, hopefully, someone will have applied a muzzle to those ex-players who insistently drone on about players' mistakes. Everything's always much easier from outside the fence.
Nine's coverage, which came to an end in 2018, could perhaps be described as knowledgeable but staid, with the odd scallywag or two thrown into the mix. The dead giveaway was that everyone was conservatively dressed in jackets and ties. But now its 40-year reign is over, courtesy of Cricket Australia's decision to chase the big bucks on offer from Fox rather than protect the interests of free-to-air viewers.
Last year, the new kids on the block shunned Nine's old-school tradition and adopted something more in line with the approach Channel Ten took to its Big Bash coverage (2013 to 2018), stealing some of its presenters in the process. The load is now spread far more widely. The camera spends a lot more time watching trios of commentators interacting with each other. The dress and general tone is less formal. Mischief is in the air and there's a lot of laughter. Nicknames abound, some imaginative, some not. "Skull" (the eccentric Kerry O'Keeffe) is the infectious court jester on Fox; "Flemo" (Damien Fleming) is the resident wit on Seven, alliterating ad finitum about "avenues of apprehension" and "pathways to the pavilion".
Fitting right in with the former players sitting alongside him in the box, Mark Howard ("Howie") is as relaxed a host on Fox as he was on Ten's BBL coverage, well-equipped to keep things moving. Tim Lane serves as the anchoring voice of cricket wisdom on Seven, a caller in the great tradition known as "the Accurate One", a title he deserves (although Fox's Shane Warne is a strong contender).
Women have been made welcome, although they're still very much in the minority. On the rare occasions when Nine allowed them in the door, it always managed to make them seem like aliens. But they're right at home here. A former England Test player, Fox's Isa Guha is not only an astute observer of the game but a great conversationalist. Australian Test representative Mel Jones has also earned her on-air stripes at Fox. And, on Seven, another former England Test player, Alison Mitchell, knows cricket from the inside and delivers her insights with finesse. Then there's the supporting cast doing interviews on the boundary or in the studio, including Seven's impressive Mel McLaughlin and, until her recent departure from Fox, the excellent Neroli Meadows ("Nez").
Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Mel McLaughlin and Tim Paine lead the Seven Network’s cricket commentary team.Credit:Seven Network
But there are serious downsides to the coverage on both networks. On Seven, there are the ads, insufferably interrupting not just the game but some of the interesting conversations accompanying it. For its part, Fox too often appears to be undervaluing its commentators' ability to hold our attention and seems unaware of the action that goes on between overs (if you're looking in the right places). Perceived breaks in play are regularly filled with tedious, bellowing in-house promotions for the exciting games ahead. Or there are the endless reruns of selected highlights: sixes, wickets, on-field catches, "crowd catches", et cetera.
What's needed this season is less of this kind of overkill and more of the kind of conversation that used only to be heard in "the shed".
Tom Ryan, former film critic at The Sunday Age and a long-retired cricketer, is now an armchair critic. He recently contributed to Hardie Grant's Bill Lawry: Chasing a Century and his latest book, The Films of Douglas Sirk: Exquisite Ironies and Magnificent Obsessions, was published earlier this year.
Australia's TV cricket calendar
• The Australian women's team's T20 matches against Sri Lanka have been completed.
• The women's T20 tri-series with India and England begins on January 31 at Manuka Oval.
• The Australian men's team's T20 matches against Sri Lanka are already under way. The final one is on November 1 at the MCG.
• The first of three T20s to be played against Pakistan will be played on Sunday, November 3 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
• The first of two Test matches against Pakistan begins on November 21 at the Gabba.
• The first of three Test matches to be played against New Zealand begins on December 12 in Perth.
• A tour of India, Bangladesh and South Africa takes place in January, February and March.
• The first of three T20s to be played in Australia against New Zealand will take place on March 13 in Sydney. There'll be three further T20s in New Zealand beginning on March 24 at Dunedin.
• All games will be covered live on Fox. The Test matches and the women's T20 tri-series will also be on Seven.
• In addition, Fox's dedicated cricket channel is offering a host of talk shows. Among them will be
- Robert "Crash" Craddock's terrific interview show, Cricket Legends
- Cricket 360, hosted by Gerard Whateley and "Crash" Craddock
- WBBL – The Blast hosted by Megan Barnard and Mel Jones with Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy, and
- The Back Page – Summer of Cricket with Tony Squires, Kelli Underwood and the Back Page team regulars focusing on cricket.
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