I’m very much pro this sort of thing and would happily listen to Gower pun his way through a supermarket’s worth of foreign brands and products while I have my morning coffee, or indeed my refreshing cup of Tapal Tea. I like the way Gower manages to complete the assignment in a timely and correct fashion while also making it clear that it is all vaguely silly and not to be taken so seriously as all that, which is not a bad maxim for sport and sports watching as well, although easy to forget in the intense and angry times in which we live.
The other figure who has been excellent on the cricket coverage is Urooj Mumtaz, a commentator with whom I was hitherto unfamiliar. Her Wikipedia introduction heralds an all-round talent of Bothamesque greatness. “Mumtaz is a Pakistani cricket commentator, television host, dentist, and former cricketer.” A dentist, you say? As if all that were not enough, she has also achieved mastery of sports-presenter banter, sympathising with the short stature of Ian Ward. Solid.
The days when Sky’s commentary was like pulling teeth have long gone and it is impossible to deny that its triumvirate of Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain and Ward – all of whom are in harness for this Test series – are as good as any in any sport.
Hussain, by the way, must be racking up the air miles, he was over in Sharjah yesterday to work on the England v Scotland match in the Women’s T20 World Cup, also on Sky Sports Cricket. Hopefully he has packed plenty of spare clothes for this commentary odyssey, or at least a decent stash of Saaf.
I particularly admire of Gower, Atherton and Hussain that they manage to convey the intensity of the international cricket life via their own experiences, but never lapse into the tired old “I don’t know what’s going on out there, back in my day …” that bedevilled cricket broadcasting for so many years.
All in all, the week’s coverage was a most satisfactory fusion of the old and the new, a balancing act that preoccupies all broadcast companies and one that is rarely this well navigated.