TL
Amazing to see the difference, I am too young to remember any BBC Cricket before Channel 4 had the rights but what amazing coverage they had and still for me to this day has never been surpassed by Sky and Sunset & Vine might be missed this coming summer of cricket. Even the innovations like Snickometer, Red Zone, Hawkeye (which came later than 2000) were excellent and added to the coverage and Channel 4 coverage is my earliest cricket memory. Thanks for filling in the other gaps and as you said there was a distinctive change post 2003 where they got Boycott, Atherton etc in and made it more English focused.
Also I thought it was nice BBC credited Channel 4 commentary which they didn't have to do as the ECB would have had the rights/footage handed back to them when the rights moved from Channel 4 to Sky. They didn't credit any ITV/Sky Sports/World Feed commentary on Match of their Day recently or Classic F1 in the past.
Yes, it was a delight to see the Channel 4 programme again. I said this on Twitter yesterday, but if anybody wanted an example of how much Channel 4 moved on cricket coverage, compare yesterday's archive cricket from 2000 with the match shown last week (still on iPlayer) from 1995. The 2000 coverage (by which I mean camera work, slo-mo replays, graphics, sound) is very similar to what Sky give us today (in terms of the feed), whereas it's lightyears ahead of where the BBC left it in 1998.
Barry Richards was also credited as a commentator in that match - the BBC's astons listing the commentators were clearly designed to cover up the original commentator graphics from the Channel 4 programme, which contained the Channel 4 logo.
And yes, Slater made his commentary debut here in the UK with C4 in 2000. He joined them again in 2001 for the first half of the summer before joining up with the Australian team to win the Ashes in the second half, and was back on the team for 2002 and, memorably, 2005.
It was interesting to note the there was a deliberate 'World of Cricket' feel for the commentary team in the early years of C4, with the use of commentators who were neither English nor representing the touring team. For example, they used Wasim Akram in 1999, Ian Smith, Michael Slater and Barry Richards in 2000, Ian Bishop and Ian Smith in 2001, Michael Slater, Barry Richards and Ian Smith in 2002 and Ian Smith in 2003. This changed a bit from 2004 when C4 wanted it to become more 'England focused' so this led to the hiring of Boycott and an all-English commentary team with one touring commentator (excluding Richie Benaud, but he's honourably English, isn't he?!)
Barry Richards was also credited as a commentator in that match - the BBC's astons listing the commentators were clearly designed to cover up the original commentator graphics from the Channel 4 programme, which contained the Channel 4 logo.
And yes, Slater made his commentary debut here in the UK with C4 in 2000. He joined them again in 2001 for the first half of the summer before joining up with the Australian team to win the Ashes in the second half, and was back on the team for 2002 and, memorably, 2005.
It was interesting to note the there was a deliberate 'World of Cricket' feel for the commentary team in the early years of C4, with the use of commentators who were neither English nor representing the touring team. For example, they used Wasim Akram in 1999, Ian Smith, Michael Slater and Barry Richards in 2000, Ian Bishop and Ian Smith in 2001, Michael Slater, Barry Richards and Ian Smith in 2002 and Ian Smith in 2003. This changed a bit from 2004 when C4 wanted it to become more 'England focused' so this led to the hiring of Boycott and an all-English commentary team with one touring commentator (excluding Richie Benaud, but he's honourably English, isn't he?!)
Amazing to see the difference, I am too young to remember any BBC Cricket before Channel 4 had the rights but what amazing coverage they had and still for me to this day has never been surpassed by Sky and Sunset & Vine might be missed this coming summer of cricket. Even the innovations like Snickometer, Red Zone, Hawkeye (which came later than 2000) were excellent and added to the coverage and Channel 4 coverage is my earliest cricket memory. Thanks for filling in the other gaps and as you said there was a distinctive change post 2003 where they got Boycott, Atherton etc in and made it more English focused.
Also I thought it was nice BBC credited Channel 4 commentary which they didn't have to do as the ECB would have had the rights/footage handed back to them when the rights moved from Channel 4 to Sky. They didn't credit any ITV/Sky Sports/World Feed commentary on Match of their Day recently or Classic F1 in the past.
