³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Great news that highlights are going to be on TV Adam!

Can you tell us who is presenting the TV coverage? Thanks

What do you think who are the three teams favourite in the world cup twenty twenty.

I can't wait for next friday, not only will it be my birthday but it will be my first time watching England, Are TMS going to get me a persent? lol

glad the west indies part of the summer is over - a shameful few weeks for both national boards and the WI players - cricket was brought into contempt IMHO

and glad the beeb has the T20 well covered, as i don't have a satellite subscription, and won't be going to the games. even though i live in london and have access to 2 of the 3 host grounds, the tickets are over-priced and the ICC provides no info about how to get hold of them (the tickets section of their website is a joke, and the customer service phone line isn't answered - i've tried 4 times). in addition,the system of double-headers goes against the brevity that makes T20 attractive in the first place, and seems designed purely to make things as convenient and profitable for organisers and broadcasters through keeping costs down... people with busy working lives, or kids in tow, don't want to spend 8 hours at a ground...

but hopefully there'll be some good cricket, and the weather will warm up...

How long will the evening highlights be and can you confirm the correct times?

- says they will be only 40 mins, but says they are an hour but I don't think all the start times are correct on this page.

Allelulia another morsal of terrestrial cricket...

It will be fast and furious not cricket at all really but I'm sure England will give us a glimmer of hope then crash and burn in the semi's

Good to see the highlights are on but at what time of night, bad enough that the majority of cricket is on sky but showing it at that time on normal telly is a joke. Hevean forbid it should replace another bbc repeat or program about cooking/gardening/wallpaper.

Nice to see the ecb really taking advantage of a world event and spreading it across the land for all to enjoy, oh maybe not then. As usual more short sighted muppetry from the men in charge.

You can hardly be surprised that the highlights are on at an ungodly hour. Par for the course when the Beeb gets cricket.

I thought that it was poor showing the World Cup highlights from the West Indies that late, but I thought perhaps it was necessary due to the time difference.
However it is now clear that it is just the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s disregard for the game. How many channels does the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ now have on digital TV? 4? And having the highlights on that late implies that from 8 (maybe earlier) till 11.30 on all four channels there is something more important on. 10-12 hours of something more important? I doubt it.
Or perhaps it takes ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ editors 4 hours longer to put together a higlights package than it does those on channels 4 and 5?
When Wimbledon is on it is rammed down our throats all day for two weeks and then the highlights are on at least an hour before the cricket highlights. When is someone at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ going to stand up for the rights of cricket watchers? I pay my licence tax, the same as those people who are tennis fans for two weeks a year. I'm a cricket fan all year round, when do I get my representation?
Shame on you ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and your disgusting abuse of those who are forced to fund you. How do I get my licence tax refunded?

"One of cricket's great one-day innovators, Dermot Reeve"?

Forgive my ignorance....what did Dermot Reeve innovate in one-day cricket?

I have to agree with ILOVEMYDENHAM.

Why can't ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ make it like SKY..i.e if you watch our channels you'll have to pay the license fee. These guys didn't invent the Telly, why do we have to pay the license for just owning a telly...for all you know I could be just watching dvds.

Cricket is the second or third most popular sport in the country. Millions of kids, adults, grandparents, families etc would love to watch the highlights of the 20:20 World Cup. But, according to radiotimes, they are on at 11:20 - 12:20 AM. No-one stays up this late; there is no chance of you getting more than a half a million viewers! Why not put it at 7 or 8? Instead there is Flog It and Springwatch. The cricket World Cup is in England! - Publicise it so everyone gets excited by it etc, don't hide it away at night.
I would seriously change it ...

Excellent blog Adam.

I think you have put together an excellent team for the World Twenty20 coverage on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ radio.

You have a great mix of commentators and summarisers it should be really good listening.

This tournament is a great opportunity to use the likes of Simon Hughes and Mark Pougatch as well as Kevin Howells. It is a shame that Blowers isnt involved at all though because I do think his style goes well with the excitement of this form of the game.

One thing that was missing from the tournament in South Africa was the commentary friends from overseas so Im really pleased to see Tony Cozier, John Kenny and Glen Mitchell in the team (although I hope that Jim Maxwell will be on duty during the Ashes?)

And a cracking list of summerisers Dermot Reeve was good on the last New Zeland tour, and my two favourites from overseas Geoff Lawson and Jeremy Coney.

Good to see the womens tournament getting good coverage as well.

Looking forward to it.

Who do you think have the least chance of winning Adam- I feel that Scotland won't stand a chance at all.

I agree that the highlights are on at a ridiculously late hour. How on earth are you to encourage people to watch it by scheduling it that late? Also agree that when Wimbledon is on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ seem to have every single hour dedicated to it but the cricket seems to fall by the wayside.

What's going on? Surely the schedulers could show the highlights at a more respectable time?

Crazy scheduling! I know that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ don't have the live rights (as usual SKY have got them) but there's got to be some way that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ could have gone without The One show for a couple of weeks and stuck the highlights on during that 7:00pm slot. It's the World 20/20 cup for goodness sake! And it's being held in England!! Talk about not doing a competition justice!

is there any chance that the highlights are going to be available on iplayer? the recent test series highlights on channel 5 was available on there equivalent internet player.

oh and everyone saying that its the idea that highlights are that late because of there being more "important" things in between-obviously its not that but might have a bit to do with televising rights-these things are always a bit extreme, just look at football highlights and MOTD.

All I can say is - much ado about nothig . How dare you raise our hopes about sensible coverage , and then show them when every child will be in bed (those that won't will certainly not be interested in cricket)
If you ddon't show cricket at a sensible time, why waste money buying the rights? . Interest in cricket has plummeted in schools since the 2005 Ashes. Its only the public schoolboys/expat mercenaries who play for England now.

To the people wanting the highlights on at 7/8 in the evening you may want to know the games won't finish til approx half 8 so to have highlights of something still on seems a tad difficult.

Now given this 10pm would be an ideal time to show the highlights but the news is on bbc1 at that time and newsnight is on at half 10 so if it was on at 10 it would only be a 30 min show on bbc2, which you'd also moan about.

I agree. Surely the 20-20 would have gotten similar viewing figures had they been on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳2 at 9PM slot as the programmes that are going to be showing. Does it matter if the the housewives that view ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s normal programming at this time slot are kept waiting a couple of weeks. A 9PM highlights for an hour on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳2 would have been perfect.

The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has always treated cricket very badly. Remember the days when the highlights use to be on past midnight. Yet cricket consitently use to get a higher daytime viewing figures than their normal programming.

Have people not got video recorders or PVRs? Ours is going to be put to very good use over the next 3 weeks or so!

It is always a joy to listen to the views, comments and reflectons from the knowledgeable Jonathan Agnew and his colleagues.

Wishing all the cricketers of the participating teams form, fitness and camaraderie during the days of intense competition and rivalry for the top booty.



Dr. Cajetan Coelho

Adam are the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ using an ICC feed for the highlights of games, or are the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ going to use Sky's coverage and commentators etc? Great that there are highlights on at all IMO. Would have been great if the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ could have coaxed a couple of lower profile games for live coverage from Sky, but maybe thats hoping for too much! (For those moaning about the timing of highlight, as someone pointed out a lot of games end around 8.30, so the earliest a highlight package could realistically be broadcast would be around 10 O'clock (anyone know if there are any later finishes?)

As for the radio coverage, all sounds good. Are any of the innovations R5live use during the domestic competitions (commentators stationed around the ground for example?) going to be used?

As for Dermott Reeve's one day innovations, well he was the first to really use the reverse sweep I seem to remember, and as a bowler was pretty adept at medium pace death bowling. Thats not even taking into account his captaincy, which lead Warwickshire to a number of One Day trophies. And he was a pretty important cog in the World Cup finalists in 1992, the guy has real one day bona fides.

"Cricket Twenty20.... watch the TV highlights on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 2 from 11.35pm".

Is this a joke? How many poeple are the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ assuming are going to watch the highlights? Why did the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ bother buying the rights to show the highlights?

11.35pm??

That's great, unless you work, or are at school or are too young to stay up late, or too old.

I cant wait for the tournament to start! I`ve got tickets to the Pakistan V England match at the Oval....this time we`ll win it not just get to the final! I`ve been to so many test matches and odi's...and followed my local team in county matches...but this will be my first international experience of twenty20...i just hope the weather stays this great through out the tournament!

Im glad that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has the rights for the highlights i`ll definitely be watching with interest.

If the iplayer has the highlights program, then I will be able to watch in the morning...(Sorry radio4:-))
(They will be on the iplayer?)

My wife thinks that eleven years is more than enough time to get Andrew Flintoff fit for the Twenty-Twenty World Cup.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

hey wat a time to start my study leve... i dnt think they will win it but watch out for the young boys from Bangladesh

why are the highlights on so late? ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ what are you doing?

The programme finishes after midnight.

Why do you always mess cricket on tv up?

They might be on that late as Sky won't let them show the highlights earlier. If Sky is planning a highlights package of their own, they won't want the Beeb jumping the gun. Just a guess, though.

"They might be on that late as Sky won't let them show the highlights earlier. If Sky is planning a highlights package of their own, they won't want the Beeb jumping the gun. Just a guess, though."

I suspect that is part of the problem. Previously (notably during the Ashes in Aus) Sky prevented the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ showing highlights before a certain time (10pm IIRC), and the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ then felt it had more important priorities for the slots immediately after that (including the News and Newsnight, but also including repeats of docs about sitcoms) and shunted the highlights much later (usually post 11pm). They then painted it as all SKY's fault.

I imagine we will recieve a similar spin now, if they ever get round to addressing peoples complaints. Whatever happens they will never admit that the schedulers see any cricket as an annoyance, best hidden away in the small hours.

Poor old Mountford!

Why can't they give the TV gig to one of the excellent chaps from the blogs or TMS?

And to be put in to bat behind Manish Bhasin - oh the ignominy!

The last time Bhasin was let near the cricket coverage he completely messed it up - demonstrating an embarrassing and insulting lack of knowledge of the game and world geography!

Why does the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ insist on unknowledgeable pretty boys instead of a quality broadcaster? Aaargh!

The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ highlights coverage is a disgrace. 11.20pm? Why did the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ even bother bidding for the highlights package?

Channel 5 provide excellent highlights coverage of a full day's test or ODI cricket and they manage to get it on air at 7.15pm, even when play finishes late.

I doubt that Sky are a factor in the timing given the time C5 have their programme. However, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, please have the decency to explain why you are treating cricket fans so badly?

One comment mentions recording the highlights. I will be doing this, but I don't have time in the mornings to watch them. I will therefore have to watch them in the evening of the following day, so a full day after the game.

Adam i totally agree with the many comments regarding ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s TV highlights on the above. I understand it would be difficult to heavily market the tournament without being the main rights holders. However what would be genius would be to get Adrian Childs to do some commentary for your radio time during the Live One show. Im sure his deadpan humour would go down well. keep up the great work.

Why isn't there any coverage of the warm-up games not involving England?

I think people should stop knocking the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ here regarding highlights packages...SKY have paid mega bucks for the rights which consist of live coverage AND a comprehensive 2hour highlights package which pretty much runs through the night, as a result of this they didn't allow the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to show highlights earlier in the evening....u should be grateful they have any highlights at all...

And regarding post 4...I agree about the prices to a certain extent...the semi finals are ridiculously priced at £90..but everything else is good value...the double headers are an excellent and rare chance to see more of the greatest players in the world on show

The ticketing could have been better organised but if u paid attention and tried hard enough u would have got tix...which is why im going to 8 matches....so quit moaning and be grateful that this country has such a great tournament this year...lets enjoy this feast of top quality cricket and make it a great advert for england around the world!!

There are a lot of ill informed idiots on here who just jump on the anti ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ bandwagon. Sky would not allow the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to show the highlights at an earlier time. Before you come on here spouting rubbish check out your facts first.

DWALDO, would you provide a link to the details of these facts we are missing?

In the past the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has played the 'Sky made us do it' card, and it transpired that in fact the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ were waiting an hour after the contract required of them before showing the highlights. So you can see why some of us are sceptical when this excuse is used again.

Ideally there should be an explanation from the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ of why they are scheduling so poorly. Including the details of any restriction on broadcast times (not just 'there is a resitriction', but what it is).

I'd have thought five minutes would be enough to cover the highlights of a 20/20 match (Pietersen hitting a six standing on his head and doing his chicken dance, for instance, or the rather fetching cheerleaders they seem to have in India), so couldn't it just be slipped in as part of the news bulletin, and be done with it?

Hey hey..wheres Sri-Lanka on the above Link???

Surely if the incapable likes of Netherlands and Ireland can be
there..then why not the former ODI Champions???

and if you need to figure out who the stars can be for S.L..&by the look of things you have gone on recent form...

how about T.M Dilshan as he & AB Devillers single handedly took Delhi onto the semifinals of the IPL???

I love Twenty20, so it is great to see it on terrestrial TV. Let the slogfest begin!

Hi Adam

Is the World Twenty20 the only cricket that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has TV rights for, or will you also be showing other events such as the 50 Overs World Cup, Champions Trophy or any away Test series?

I think this time Yuvraj Singh can't hit more than six sixes during the tournament. India will not enter in semi-final due to the following resaons:
1. Poor form of Dhoni
2. Bad selection of player like Pathan brothers.
3. inconsistency of Sehbag
4. Injury of Zahir

"The most exciting cricketers in the world are arriving in the UK ready to compete in the second World Twenty20 - and you will be able to follow all the action on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.

We will be providing ball-by-ball commentary on every match in the competition on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio, with games shared between Five Live, Five Live Sports Extra and Radio Four Long Wave"

Can you clarify which matches will be on Long wave? THe schedule at only refers to "Coverage on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 5 Live/³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sport website" or "Coverage on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 5 Live sports extra/³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sport". Does this mean all matches are on R4lw, or none, or some but we aren't allowed to know which?

I can't see any coverage for the Sco v Ned warm up match this afternoon - not even ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland?

Mr Mountford,

thanks for the info. Good to hear that some matches will be available on LW. Would it be possible to persuade someone to update the schedule on the website to include details of Long wave transmissions as well as R5/R5SG? It seems odd to be hiding part of your coverage from the audience.

The answer from the TV bods is as dissappointing as it is predictable (it is basically a repeat of the Ashes debacle). Odd that they consider the post Newsnight slot to be the earliest available. I assume that means that the old films and repeats that fill the post news slot on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1 (at 10.30ish) have a higher priority than cricket highlights. Again dissapointing, but predictable. It is good to have cricket back on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, I hope Burnham and Davies are watching.

I agree with RedRedRobin. I take the point that on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳2 the highlights cannot be shown before 11.20pm on weeknights. But next Tuesday for example its a film on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1 at 10.35pm. I just wish the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ with all TV sorts highlights scheduling would look at time slots like this rather than waiting for a later slot on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳2. Also at weekends they could show it a bit earlier.

I presume they don't have red button rights because I remember during the Ashes they did show an verison on there at 10pm.

But to repeat what others have said, even if they were allowed to show highlights at 7pm its not an option as the evening match would only be half way through.

Sorry to Adam Mountford for hijacking the TMS blog over television issues, obviously we apprciate you are the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ radio cricket producer.

Part of the problem is that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ have kept this so low-profile, there is no details on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ press office website which I use a lot. Also the Sports editors blog which used to be very good as seen so few post recently which is a shame.

I very much agree with comments 53 and 54. I see Sky is saying today that it has secured live and highlights rights to the next cricket World Cup. Is there likely to be anything on terrestrial at all? I also hope that the panel assessing crown jewels TV rights looks at these pages. If so, I'd also like to say that surely England tours should have some terrestrial highlights? If England away football qualifiers do, then surely the same must stand for cricket?

I am looking forward to seeing what the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ do with the highlights packages and looking forward to TMS coverage. I'm also grateful that some matches will be on Radio 4 LW which is useful when the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sport Player and digital radio are not to hand.

The real question is why the cricket is not on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1 like Match of the Day? Hiding it on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳2 was always going to cause a clash with Newsnight during the week. Or, why not use any of your other channels like ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳3 like you did the African Nations Cup?

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1 after 10.30 is just full of films we have already seen like 'Signs' on Monday. And as for tonight, the nation has Mr Popular Jonathan Ross on at 10.30pm - joy!

in a multi-platform digital age there is no excuse for highlights at 11.20 on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳2 - thats why you do not deserve the coverage on TV. I might add I am sure the radio will be excellent as ever.

Arlo White and Mark Pougatch--why oh why this infatuation with Radio 5 and a youth audience , Mr Mountford? I want expert commentators not football watchers!
And the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 1135pm--bit odd to say the least but then again when do the employees listen to us--we only pay their overly high wages!!!

In Reply to rac21ers "Arlo White and Mark Pougatch--why oh why this infatuation with Radio 5 and a youth audience"

To be fair this is Twenty20 which does tend to attract a slightly younger age group, and the likes of Arlo White and Mark Pougatch fit in well with this in my opinion.

Twenty20 is not the same as a Test Match.

Whilst I'm for all for the global expansion of the great game, can somebody please explain to me how 2 teams - Ireland and Scotland - both currently languishing bottom of their respective FPT groups can make the 20/20 World Cup? Are they a "county" or a nation? Are they the same squads?

Likewise, how can players who've made International appearances for Ireland e.g. Eoin Morgan, Ed Joyce etc, then get called up to play for England? Or for that matter Wales (Rob Croft)?

It's bemusing....or what have I missed?

Given that we poor ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ cricket viewers only get a whole match (or even three) crammed into one hour, why do we have to endure so much talk and not enough actual sport? Saturday night's coverage devoted 30 per cent of its time to talking heads, summaries, looks back, looks forward, statistics et al. Not exaggerating - timed it on me recorder. And that 30 per cent does not include gratuitous cuts to crowd/pavillion etc used during the play.
Us povs who cannot afford cable or satellite for proper coverage only get an hour for a whole day's cricket. Please, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, show us the sport not people talking about it!

and so the 20/20 has started...

however I haven't seen any of it yet because the highlights are on so late. I understand that you are not allowed to show any before 10pm .
Fair enough. So why not show 1 game from 10-10.30 on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳2 and then another game from 10.35-11.05 on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1. No news programmes interrupted, the games on at a time that people would like to watch...

It is strange how the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ can find the time for MOTD at this time, snooker, golf (the Masters), tennis, american football... but yet not for our national summer sport.

56 and 60 hit the nail on the head here - you have ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳s 3 and 4 - use them! Even have the highlights on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳3 at 10 then on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳2 whenever you like from 11.20 onwards. And cut out the dross - endless montages of games already seen, talking to Australians who didn't even sound particularly Australian in the Walkabout (I mean, do me a favour!) and I don't know what. Also how about some proper analysis, discussions of the skills of the players and the finer points of the game (such as they are in T20)? We know the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ can do it, see MOTD. Why lower yourselves to the insubstantial nonsense we get instead? To prove beyond doubt that you don't deserve the highlights?

I'm all Arlo'd out. Why is he the most dominant person on TMS's 20/20 coverage? - I really don't understand why he's been elevated to Adam Mountfield's darling pet commentator. Personally, I find his shouty,cliche-ridden commentaries jarring and regularly I find myself reaching for the off-button.
I really hope for the forthcoming Ashes he's kept on 5live to give his vox pops and kept away from TMS. Five days of the man will drive me mad. How is White in and Selvy a preferable listening experience?.. It isn't

5Live sports anchors Arlo White and Mark Pougatch are not trusted or not used to commentate on live football matches so why are they entrusted to commentate on the cricket and therefore marginalising Simon Mann?