The at the Oval will always be remembered as one of the saddest days in the history of Test Cricket.
It has also presented quite a challenge for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Cricket team.
As always it has been vital throughout to maintain impartiality and accuracy despite the range of strong emotions surrounding the issue. Anyone who heard the Victoria Derbyshire Five Live phone-in on monday morning will be in no doubt of the passions raised by accusations of cheating.
So far I believe our coverage of the events has been very impressive. Test Match Special and Five Live Sport brought all the twists and turns of that amazing afternoon, and there has been some top journalism helping to stay on top of developments since.
Pat Murphy's broad shoulders and excellent contacts helped secure some fantastic live interviews amongst the scrum at the Oval as the Pakistan team left on Monday morning.
Jonathan Agnew secured an exclusive interview with ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed before any other outlet. And then on Wednesday morning, Garry Richardson broke the story on the Today programme that the crucial hearing against Inzamam-ul-Haq was facing delay.
Read the rest of this entry
One of the best parts of my job is the chance to hear the views from some of the greats of the game and over the past couple of days I've had the fortune to be in the Five Live commentary box ear-wigging the likes of Geoff Boycott, Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart, Rodney Hogg and Graham Thorpe. Yes, I know this sounds like name dropping... but I can't help who wanders in !
As Pakistan continue to pile on the runs and the bad weather interrupts play thoughts from many are turning towards Australia and who England should select for the Ashes tour. Although most of the places are already confirmed subject to fitness, the selectors will have some interesting decisions to make.
Who should be the extra batsman? It's reported the choice may be between Owais Shah, Ed Joyce or Rob Key. Well Graham Thorpe, who knows a thing or two about batting after playing 100 tests, thinks Key should be the man.
The Kent captain apparently impressed the Aussies during the last Ashes series down under.
Read the rest of this entry
It's really exciting being back at the Oval. As soon as I walked through the Alec Stewart Gate this morning my mind wandered back to last year's dramatic finale of the Ashes here.
As last year I am here looking after Five Live's Cricket Coverage - today that involves helping the Victoria Derbyshire programme with some live pieces amongst the crowd, keeping an eye on Pat Murphy and Graham Gooch as they deliver regular updates and this evening, overseeing Five Live Sport's live outside broadcast.
It should be fun tonight - we have Geoff Boycott and Jonathan Agnew presenting a Cricket phone-in, then Mark Saggers will be here with Phil Tufnell as we start to look ahead to England's trip to Australia to try to defend the Ashes.
Read the rest of this entry
This time last year the tension before the Oval Test was all-consuming.
Four extraordinary Ashes Tests had been played and the suspense in the hours leading up to the final match was hard to stomach.
This time, with a 2-0 series in the bag and Pakistan’s confidence seemingly shot, the atmosphere is altogether different.
Read the rest of this entry
In order to try to keep the blog on an even keel, we need to set out a few ground rules to begin with. It's part and parcel of being the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ really - we have to be a bit more structured... They're very similar to the House Rules on our messageboards.
Read the rest of this entry
Welcome to the all-new Test Match Special blog.
Our aim is to help you get closer to our cricket presenters and producers, giving you the chance to feed your thoughts and opinions directly into Test Match Special and Five Live's cricket coverage.
Amongst our bloggers, you'll hear from Jonathan Agnew, Arlo White, producers Peter Baxter and Adam Mountford, as well as our cricket journalists at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sport web site. We also hope to have guest bloggers for you from the world of cricket - so if there's anyone in particular you'd like to hear from, let us know and we'll try to get them to write something.
Read the rest of this entry
