Coverage of the Fourth Test

As I write this towards the end of the third day with England struggling, I would rather post on the coverage particularly the Aussie contribution.

When I was last in Australia 5  years ago there was no journalist I enjoyed more than Gideon Haigh in The Australian.

The newspaper was given out free at breakfast. He was devoid of the chauvinism of many an Aussie reporter on cricket and less egocentric than the ghost written cricketer.

I was delighted to read him now in The Times alongside Mike Atherton. He has insight, knowledge and a fine descriptive turn of phrase.

I particularly liked the way he described day/night Tests, comparing them to long haul flights where you lose sense of time and place as you eat your meal at strange hours.

I’m beginning to enjoy Ian Chappell on the radio too.

He is trenchant in criticising England – the captaincy of Joe Root, the weakness of Jack Leach – but I enjoy his recollection of legendary Aussie cricketers whom I remember in my earliest rite of passage of cricket like Norman O’Neill, Bill Lawry and Bobby Simpson.

Chappell is not backward in his views, dismissing those that contest them with the phrase “Go jump in the lake”.

Another Aussie I enjoy is Geoff Lemmon on TMS.

The Ashes may be one-sided but they have been played in a good spirit.

Lemmon is never triumphal nor is he Oz-centric.

Then there is Jim Maxwell.

He seems to enjoy being part of the TMS team as much as the great Alan McGillivray who became quite emotional in his last TMS broadcast.

One broadcaster that is struggling is BT Sport.

They probably paid too much for an all night (on GMT) cricket match.

They got off to a bad technical start on the first day at the Gabba and now there was a public spat between Moeen Ali and Sir Alistair Cook.

I did not see it, but Moeen was using the occasion to criticise the way he was picked from 2-9 when Cook was skipper.

I have always respected Moeen as a cricketer.

A few years ago I saw him captain Worcestershire superbly to win the T20.

He had had an excellent all-round career – but not as good as Cook arguably the finest Test run accumulator England has produced – and a popular figure seen as a “good egg”.

I will not take sides but BT may now find it hard to recruit big names as analysts.