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nick-knight
Say it again, Bob
By Will last year, mid-February, 1 Comment »
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As England slumped yesterday, Sky’s commentary team sprung into fervent action. Its coverage of events in Jamaica was excellent, led by Ian Ward (Wardy) in the studio, whose questions to Nick Knight (Knighty), Bob Willis (Bob) and Nasser Hussain (Nass) were akin to floaty half-volleys, the like of which England’s batsmen could only dream of as Jerome Taylor continued to york them for fun. Hussain and co responded magnificently.
But first, it was Willis who provided the entertainment when he launched another dreamy attack on Daryl Harper, the third umpire who upheld another controversial decision which was referred by the players. “He’s got to be given his pension book and [taken] out of there,” Willis spat, his lip curled in disgust. “He is hopeless.” Hussain and Mikey Holding were no less disparaging, both lauding the use of technology while questioning the credentials of the person sitting behind the monitor.
By now, Ward was revelling in his role as the anchorman with licence to laugh. Barely able to suppress his giggling at Willis’s growing animosity towards everyone, with perfect timing England began to collapse, providing him with further ammunition to wind up his easily-angered colleagues. Not even the usually polite and cheery Knight could hide his confusion and anger at the dominoes tumbling in Kingston. “These are Test cricketers!” he pleaded to the camera with justifiably perplexed anguish. His excellent analysis of Alastair Cook’s near-total lack of feet movement provided substance to his grumbles, but it wasn’t long before Ian Botham (Sir Ian, or Sreean) turned the tables on him.
Knight knows Ian Bell better, perhaps, than Ian Bell knows himself. And after a brief impression of Tony Blair – palms open, and a call for unity: “hey, guys. Come on. Let’s be sensible” – Knight admitted that Bell’s issues, unlike Cook, are upstairs in the head. Bell’s detractors might not have learned much by that facile analysis, but in one fell swoop, England’s No.3 had lost the backing of his No.1 fan.
Hussain, though, stood out. Rarely is Botham demoted to being a sideshow yet, as Kingston began to reverberate, Hussain didn’t let him get a word in. A torrent of analysis, anger, mild abuse and pent-up frustration frothed from Hussain’s mouth, as a gleeful Ward fed him with questions straight out of the Devil’s Advocate handbook.
Sky – who are not a free-to-air channel – aren’t often applauded, but their coverage of a wonderfully dramatic day in Jamaica was both entertaining and slick.
1 Comment »Life after Benaud
By Ian 3 years ago, mid-June, 29 Comments »
On Desert Island Discs, you are allowed one luxury. Given mine would be a magical television that showed all available live cricket (as well as choice re-runs), I’d be able to pick my favourite pundits to describe the action. Who are my top commentators? In theory, I would only need two to cover the matches, but that would be unfair on them (I’m not a tyrant), so I’d hire five to mix it up and give the others a rest.
Therefore, below are my five favourite commentators. Benaud would have been there, of course, as would Brian Johnston, but we must all move on. There are honourable mentions for Lloyd, Gower, Holding, Dujon, Nasser, Knight, Ward, Smith, Lawry and Greig, but these five pick themselves.My Top Five: Michael Atherton, Jimmy Adams, Michael Slater, Geoff Boycott and Simon Hughes.
I can’t imagine anyone will disagree, but then it’s your island. Pick who you like!
29 Comments »Chivalry is not dead!
By Emma 4 years ago, mid-September, 5 Comments »
The final day of Warwickshire’s season today took a slightly unorthodox turn today as Kent proved that cricket is still a game of gentlemen. With the visitors having batted through the day, securing a draw in a dead match, Rob Key declared with a few overs yet available in the final session. Opening the batting for the final time in his last championship game, Nick Knight was allowed to get the fifteen runs he needed to bring his Warwickshire first class average up to 50 before teams called a halt to play. Knight had been extremely disappointed when dismissed for 52 the previous day, so it was a nice gesture.
However, it appears none of the Kent batsmen felt quite strongly enough to hand Knight, who bowled a rare nine over spell, a second first class wicket.
5 Comments »What has Twenty20 done to D/L?
By Emma 4 years ago, mid-September, 4 Comments »
Another day, another Pro40. Today, though, saw a late season glimpse of Twenty20 batting, after Sky’s televised game from Trent Bridge faced several interruptions. After high winds, lightning and finally an evening drizzle, Warwickshire saw their required total reduced to 124, with some 70 runs to get from just 10.5 overs. Once upon a time, a team would have balked at the sight of a required rate above 6 an over, and the visitors tried their best to suggest this hadn’t changed with the loss of two wickets in as many balls.
These days, however, such recalculations place a strike-rate savvy batting side at an advantage. Whilst I would much rather see a game play on, and wouldn’t know where to start if asked to algebra my way to a better system, Duckworth/Lewis calculations often seem a few runs light on games of significantly reduced length. Nottinghamshire, having rebuilt their innings in their last few overs to place themselves at a competitive total, will feel a little hard done by.
What this result does do is ensure that Nick Knight has played his last domestic one-day game. Having announced his retirement at the end of this season, this final win places Warwickshire safe from relegation. A pity, then, that he lost his wicket for a mere 9 runs, from an ill-advised prod outside off stump.
4 Comments »