Fantastically scathing article about Channel Nine

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Howard Littlejohn said:
People over the age of 60 are also the last likely to look for other sources, and are more likely to have an allegiance to a particular channel (note: "more likely", I am aware it is a gross generalisation)
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Also more willing to simply listen to the radio.

Howard Littlejohn said:
I wonder if the low brow market isn't exactly what they are aiming for.

Cricket is seen as rather cerebral for a ball support, but the advertising dollar is in alcohol and gaming (and junk food I guess)
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That's a very broad generalisation. There would be quite a few advertisers who wouldn't be impressed with a pitch of: 'We'll bring you the low brow market.'

There are certainly a lot of stupid dickheads in Australia. But broad appeal only becomes a byword for lowest common denominator if you're too lazy to offer an alternative.

Ergo, Richie Benaud offered an alternative. His style didn't happen by accident. It was unique for a reason. That kind of nuanced observation and delivery requires real skill, judgement and attention to detail. Without him, Channel Nine are just too lazy. James Brayshaw simply hasn't put in the hours Benaud did.

So we're left with the dumbest, broadest approach to cricket coverage, poured through a 'blokey entertainment' filter that's meant to make people who don't like cricket want to watch cricket. Surprise, surprise – it's excruciating.

I wonder, why hasn't golf coverage or tennis coverage required the same kind of retooling?

I don't care for golf, particularly. I find it a bit dull. Why hasn't the sport been reformatted and the coverage jazzed up to persuade me to watch it? Do these dullards think they can just carry on appealing to people who like golf?

Sounds like a job for Brad McNamara.
 
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Golf coverage in Australia has also jumped the shark, I still find the tennis coverage to be fine.

Cricket has headed in the same direction as the AFL sadly, with ex boofhead players trying to stay relevant while offering very little analysis.

The likes of Buckley and Voss were excellent in their commentary roles, offering great insight and not trying to take over the broadcast. I find that conversely, some of the guys that were lesser footballers, also make lesser broadcasters because they know they don't carry the same credibility, so instead they just never shut up. Like Luke Darcy and Brian Taylor for example.

The great thing about Benaud was that he was a broadcaster/journo who happened to be an excellent former test cricketer. Al these other yobbos are ex cricketers working in broadcasting. There is a very clear difference.

Australian sport could really learn from the coverage of the NFL and NBA.
 

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Starburns_ said:
All depends on whether Brad McNamara takes the criticism on board over the break.
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McNamara doesn't seem the type to take criticism on board.

Rather, I reckon he will bunker down and deliver more of the same tripe.
 
Father Jack said:
naybe it's just over-saturation of blokes promoted past their ability in the TV industry trying to be mates with ex players by giving them cushy jobs
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i read i think yesterday or the day before a sherpa is taking some hughes shirts to the top of everest. they should take a RB microphone too.
 
All these tributes to Richie have made me realise even more so that he was everything Brad McNamara is not:

Richie is/was wise, talented, beloved by all, respected, respectful, mature, graceful, incredibly talented both as a cricketer and commentator/public speaker, humorous, intelligent, entertaining, able to please women sexually, able to not sound like a douchebag whenever he opened his mouth, the kind of guy that wouldn't bother having Google alerts for himself, and many, many more things that McNamara is not and will never be.
 
QAFL_Fan said:
Cricket has headed in the same direction as the AFL sadly, with ex boofhead players trying to stay relevant while offering very little analysis.

The great thing about Benaud was that he was a broadcaster/journo who happened to be an excellent former test cricketer. Al these other yobbos are ex cricketers working in broadcasting. There is a very clear difference.
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Some of the best commentators have not been fantastic players. Alan McGilvray, CMJ, Blofeld among them. They learned their craft as j journalists and broadcasters, rather than relying on their celebrity appeal as former players and trying to be entertainers. Jim Maxwell is close to being the one of that type in Australian cricket broadcasting. Maybe Mark Nicholas, who is the best of the Nine bunch for mine though held back by the antics around him, could be added to that. A knowledge of cricket is needed, and some former players and captains are needed, but ability to do the commentary job must be paramount. It isn't.
 
Boony would have made a brilliant commentator, you'd have several overs of silence followed by the sound of a beer being opened and then a brief reminder of the four wickets that fell in the preceding several overs of silence.
 
Howard Littlejohn said:
Some of the best commentators have not been fantastic players. Alan McGilvray, CMJ, Blofeld among them. They learned their craft as j journalists and broadcasters, rather than relying on their celebrity appeal as former players and trying to be entertainers. Jim Maxwell is close to being the one of that type in Australian cricket broadcasting. Maybe Mark Nicholas, who is the best of the Nine bunch for mine though held back by the antics around him, could be added to that. A knowledge of cricket is needed, and some former players and captains are needed, but ability to do the commentary job must be paramount. It isn't.
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Nicholas played and captained a hell of a lot of county cricket, but I agree with you that his media career wasn't handed to him on a silver platter just because he played the game.

It's not just commentary. How many Australian cricketers write? Not many. Ponting has a weekly column for The Australian which is usually pretty good - apparently all his books and articles used to be 99% ghost written, but would be surprised if he still gets away with that now he's done playing. Mike Hussey has a pretty ordinary short column in The Sunday Times, rarely broaches any important issues and is very sanitised which I suppose reflects the target market for the paper.
 
Ed Cowan writes, and is superb at it.

Without sounding like I'm from the 1950's, the problem with most of our current and former cricketers these days is that they are poorly educated inarticulate yobbos. So getting a decent word out of them is always going to be a challenge.

On the other hand, you have Ed Cowan a Cranbrook boy who grew up in Point Piper and attended Oxford briefly writing great stuff. Or Mike Atherton, a privately educated Cambridge graduate, or Ed Smith - a Harrow old boy who attended Oxford Uni.

I'm afraid the likes of Liverpool SHS and Ipswich SHS don't provide the same level of education, and without personal growth driven by the individual - they will remain inarticulate yobbos.
 

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QAFL_Fan said:
Ed Cowan writes, and is superb at it.
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Because he can complete a full sentence.

QAFL_Fan said:
On the other hand, you have Ed Cowan a Cranbrook boy who grew up in Point Piper and attended Oxford briefly writing great stuff. Or Mike Atherton, a privately educated Cambridge graduate, or Ed Smith - a Harrow old boy who attended Oxford Uni.
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Going to a private school doesn't mean you can write. Nor is it a prerequisite.
 
QAFL_Fan said:
Ed Cowan writes, and is superb at it.

Without sounding like I'm from the 1950's, the problem with most of our current and former cricketers these days is that they are poorly educated inarticulate yobbos. So getting a decent word out of them is always going to be a challenge.

On the other hand, you have Ed Cowan a Cranbrook boy who grew up in Point Piper and attended Oxford briefly writing great stuff. Or Mike Atherton, a privately educated Cambridge graduate, or Ed Smith - a Harrow old boy who attended Oxford Uni.

I'm afraid the likes of Liverpool SHS and Ipswich SHS don't provide the same level of education, and without personal growth driven by the individual - they will remain inarticulate yobbos.
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Don't get me wrong, love Cowan's writing. Found his book very insightful - much like another Ed who was a terrific domestic batsman, Ed Smith who has written some sensational books some cricket related, others not. But would any newspaper in Australia give him a go? Doubtful. Does anybody else remember that excellent article Chris Rogers wrote circa 2012 on cricinfo about the flaws in the techniques of our young batsmen in the shield? Based on that I reckon he certainly has a future in writing too, but as he was called up to the test side don't think he's written since.

Not ex cricketers, but hopefully guys like Geoff Lemon, Russell Jackson and Jarrod Kimber get the due recognition that they deserve too.
 
Hellgood said:
Don't get me wrong, love Cowan's writing. Found his book very insightful - much like another Ed who was a terrific domestic batsman, Ed Smith who has written some sensational books some cricket related, others not. But would any newspaper in Australia give him a go? Doubtful. Does anybody else remember that excellent article Chris Rogers wrote circa 2012 on cricinfo about the flaws in the techniques of our young batsmen in the shield? Based on that I reckon he certainly has a future in writing too, but as he was called up to the test side don't think he's written since.

Not ex cricketers, but hopefully guys like Geoff Lemon, Russell Jackson and Jarrod Kimber get the due recognition that they deserve too.
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That article was very good, he really went into the nitty gritty of issues that batsmen have whether it was an angled bat or poorly positioned feet. You can get that level of analysis on Sky in the UK, especially on the Verdict - which is an after-the-game analysis show. It's quite eye-opening if they have the right guest analysts.

Rogers will end up as a coach if he wants. He came across as the sort of bloke whose brain you'd pick if you played with him.
 
Doodlesweaver said:
That article was very good, he really went into the nitty gritty of issues that batsmen have whether it was an angled bat or poorly positioned feet. You can get that level of analysis on Sky in the UK, especially on the Verdict - which is an after-the-game analysis show. It's quite eye-opening if they have the right guest analysts.

Rogers will end up as a coach if he wants. He came across as the sort of bloke whose brain you'd pick if you played with him.
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Found it, reading it again it is even better than I remembered: What ails Australia's best and brightest?

Almost two years ago today. It's really interesting how at the time Rogers was outside the tent and seemingly not coming back in so was able to offer candid reviews of his predecessors, all of a sudden he was pulled into the fold out of the blue so wouldn't be able to be so frank and refreshingly open if he was still writing now!

As you say he's a prime candidate for a coaching role, but with the ability to convey technical analysis so damn well it selfishly makes me hope he wants to go down the media route.
 
Hellgood said:
It's not just commentary. How many Australian cricketers write? Not many. Ponting has a weekly column for The Australian which is usually pretty good - apparently all his books and articles used to be 99% ghost written, but would be surprised if he still gets away with that now he's done playing. Mike Hussey has a pretty ordinary short column in The Sunday Times, rarely broaches any important issues and is very sanitised which I suppose reflects the target market for the paper.
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It's funny how current players - cricket and AFL - are media-trained to within an inch of their life so they don't say anything at all that is offensive, interesting or different. So we get several variations of "yeah, nah, the boys played well today ... one week at a time" bullshit cliche-fests.

Then they retire and are magically expected to be articulate, interesting and have the ability to string words together like a professional communicator.
 
PrideOf said:
It's funny how current players - cricket and AFL - are media-trained to within an inch of their life so they don't say anything at all that is offensive, interesting or different. So we get several variations of "yeah, nah, the boys played well today ... one week at a time" bullshit cliche-fests.

Then they retire and are magically expected to be articulate, interesting and have the ability to string words together like a professional communicator.
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If they are employed as commentators by nein, I doubt that there is any such expectation on them from the producers
 
Doodlesweaver said:
If they are employed as commentators by nein, I doubt that there is any such expectation on them from the producers
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No. But they are expected to be experts on various savoury pastries, and occasionally pizza. Signed, Brad McNamara.

It also helps if they have stories about large amounts of alcohol or gambling. That sort of in game promotion is what the advertisers pay the extra for.
 
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The Speaker said:
I don't think Hussey is as easily drawn into the nonsense as Warne is.

Warne was still joining in with it at the start, even when he was mostly focussing on the game. Hussey just flat out refuses to.
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I love it when he clearly dead bats the blokey jokey s**t right out of there. Best part of the commentary on 9.
 
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