Doubt it - BT could have sent their own crew out, but elected not to.
Some of the criticism I’ve seen about Fox coverage (from the UK) is warranted and is fairly consistent with the criticism coming from Australia - but some of it is just complaining that the coverage is different from what the Poms get from their broadcasters.
The scoreboard thing is all kinda pedantic (afaik, the only reason we say it the other way round is that’s how our historic scoreboards showed it, wickets first - different from England’s) - but the heat BT Sport are getting for basically going on the cheap and importing Fox’s feed lock-stock-and-barrel is probably warranted - English fans deserve better, especially for arguably their most important test series.
Good that they’re getting their own commentary team. Still taking Fox’s graphics today by the look of their Twitter highlights, but that’s harder to turn around in less than a week.
Others are probably also right though - do other nations complain (or more likely, are we exposed to it) when they see Australian coverage? Certainly more exposed to the English press here than the Indian ones, say.
I recall there was similar backlash in Australia against Nine’s 2013 Ashes coverage which took the Sky UK feed. Too much perceived bias and parochialism by the English commentators. So it does work both ways.
As a result, in 2015 Nine did their own coverage, commentary and graphics. That said, in 2019 they reverted back to taking Sky’s coverage.
I think the situation has been exacerbated this time by the lack of touring commentators due to Covid etc.
obviously Isa Guha has been superb as always, but they’ve missed having some further voices to explain selections, give background on players and other information that a touring expert would know.
Michael Vaughan obviously would have been there for the first two tests had Covid not intervened (not that BT would have been happy with that), but they probably needed an Atherton, Hussein etc (but they’re contracted and linked with Sky so wouldn’t have been able to appear on a BT broadcast).
Mics are very low on the world feed and have been for the past hour…Gilchrist/Warne have been fine but their co-conspirators are much quieter.
I’m not sure this is the case, for instance Warne has been a member of Sky Sports team for many years and remains so for the English summer.
Fox probably feel they have enough English voices with Guha and Vaughan.
No way Sky would have more than 2 Australian voices for their home UK coverage. (2019 Warne and Ponting)
I think Warne is slightly different being an Australian while Hussein and Atherton often appear on Sky Sports auxiliary content like podcasts (and are doing so for this tour).
The issue with Guha is that she is part of their of team usually so more seen as a Fox Cricket member than a English voice.
That’s a poor reason why Fox shouldn’t do it - Fox’s commentary box needs diversification, if that can be achieved by bringing in some overseas voices that’s a good thing.
Some exceptionally odd areas on Sky’s broadcast of the Sydney T20 derby tonight. Started with Seven’s coverage - then during the rain delay flicked to Fox (with graphics), then after the first over back, they flicked back to Seven. Is that how Fox broadcast it?
Hussain and Atherton are exclusively contracted to Sky on a permanent basis, whereas Warne is not. Therefore, neither are allowed to be part of a broadcast team which isn’t affiliated with Sky.
Watching South Africa vs India (supersports coverage) - they must have remote commentators, Mark Nicholas had spent the best part of three overs being the only voice then mentioned something about a technical issue that must have stopped his partner from talking
Yes I’d say the Indian commentators wouldn’t be in SA, Mark might not be either.
True. However, it’s hard to excuse Fox for the situation they’re in when you look at how Seven has made a real effort to incorporate a wide range of English voices into their coverage from having Ian Botham fly out to be a central part of their coverage, interviewing the likes of David Lloyd, Graeme Swann & Monty Panesar during tea breaks and Izzy Westbury appearing alongside Peter Lalor to provide a writer’s perspective.
Fox could have done any or all of the same things Seven have done but they’ve seemingly felt content with Guha and Vaughan already being part of their team.
Mark Nicholas is in South Africa as he hosted the pre-game show for supersport and the world feed from the ground. The rest of the commentators: Pommie Mbangwa, Mike Haysman, Shaun Pollock, Kass Naidoo, and Sunil Gavaskar are also commentating from the ground.
What about the feed though? They’ll need a director or some sort of clean feed so BT Sport viewers aren’t getting random shots, graphics , statistics etc.
Looks like they’ve also got Ian Chappell according to all the complaints on twitter
Probably filling in for Katich today, because Katich is a Seven commentator.
Ah ok. Maybe due to COVID restrictions they are in different commentary boxes.
Tonight we have two BBL games overlapping: Sixers v Heat on Fox Cricket (6.05pm AEDT start) and Renegades v Hurricanes (7.15pm AEDT start) on Fox Sports 503 and Seven. It will be interesting to see the pay TV ratings.
In my mind, better BBL overlapping with BBL (particularly if one of them is a Fox exclusive) than BBL at the same time as a test match or BBL in the middle of a weekday afternoon well after Christmas.