The Longest Day, the Longest Tour

The Longest Day, the Longest Tour.

    It’s not just cricket which has changed so dramatically in the last couple of years, it’s the whole world. The long-term depth of that change will only be recognised in the years to come. In the micro-world of cricket, the Covid pandemic obliterated many of the conventions the game had been trying to hang on to for years.

    Warm-up games in international cricket have moved from ‘essential’ to ‘important’ to ‘luxury’ and ‘rarity’ and are now an ‘oddity’. It wasn’t long ago that players would never be considered for Test match selection if they hadn’t played at least two first-class games beforehand – in fact that was a stipulated pre-requisite in South Africa for 15 years.

    In the media world covering an international match ‘remotely’ was regarded as contemptuous and viewed with disgust in the industry. These days we’re just happy to receive a clean television feed and enough electricity to take part in the post-match press conference and file an end of match report. The interviews are still, mostly, taking place, remotely. It’s all quite convenient, for players and press.

    But it is an inferior product and, at some point, this will be recognised by the consumers. Soccer and rugby matches can be covered ‘off-screen’ because they last 90 minutes and the on-field action is what carries the broadcast – although, admittedly, there is far more time to ‘fill’ between footballers diving and rugby players feigning injury to catch their breath than there used to be.

     The excellent, ambitious TalkSport radio network secured the rights this year for Netherlands and Ireland Cricket. With respect, they haven’t been worth much in the past. There may be a small, committed listenership to Associate Nation cricket but it has been niche and hard, if not impossible, to monetise.

    This year, however, both nations will enjoy their most high-profile summers ever in terms of both the quality of their opponents and the significance of the fixtures. The World Cup Super League offers 10 points per game and, even if the Netherlands and Ireland are unlikely to qualify automatically for the 2023 World Cup, the West Indies desperately needed all 30 points against the Netherlands. And they got them, but not without a fight.

    Having commentated on the second ODI in Amstelveen, off-screen in TalkSport’s London Bridge studios, and interviewed the fabulous Roland Buther during the lunch-break, I had an hour before the start of Surrey’s Vitality Blast T20 match against Hampshire at the Oval – which was, fortunately, just 30 minutes away on the Underground, walking time included.

    Having just described the men from the Caribbean scramble their way from 99-5 to reach their target of 215 from the confines of a Covid-friendly booth for seven hours, and made the semi-frantic dash to the Oval, the contrast could not have been clearer between the real thing and the perceived thing.

    Despite it being the first day of England’s Test series against New Zealand at Lord’s, the Oval had a crowd of over 20,000 for just their third game of the competition. The invitation to commentate on the game was as pleasing as it was unexpected and, although I was a little weary and jaded on arrival, the bustle and buzz of the crowd was quickly revitalising.

    Having been on-air at 9:30am for the build-up to the Netherlands/West Indies match, the final wicket was claimed for a resounding Surrey victory at 9:30pm and a commentary ‘double’ had been completed which may, or may not be unique. Many of my esteemed colleagues have talked their way through T20 double-headers over the last two decades but I’m not sure many of them, if any, have done a full ODI and a T20 in the same day, for logistical reasons more than desire or stamina.

    In the next four months Ireland and the Netherlands will host England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa with the Netherlands having already played the West Indies. England are currently engaged in a Test series against New Zealand with their ODI series against the Netherlands due to start on June 17 with an entirely different squad while the Test series concludes. England then conclude last summer’s Test series against India with the final Test at Edgbaston – on which I am due to commentate for SEN – before South Africa arrive for three games in each format.

    South Africa’s first post-isolation tour of England in 1994 lasted 11 weeks and included three Texaco Trophy ODIs and three Test matches. And 14 other first-class and ‘friendly’ matches. It was the longest tour I had ever been on and remained so until now. Tours have, by and large, become shorter and shorter over the last two decades. I never came close to an 11-week tour. This one is 16-weeks, involving eight countries across three playing formats, two broadcast formats and a no less than a dozen ways for a freelance commentator to travel and accommodate himself in order to return a profit.  

    Here we go…