Televising Test Cricket

Abstract

More than any other sport on television, cricket broadcasting has a rich and full literature that reflects on the memories of those involved, the great matches covered and the wider impact television has had on the game. In the mid-1950s, the BBC produced a small book called Armchair Cricket, which was published to aid the listener and the viewer understand not only the rules and main features of cricket, but also how and why the BBC went about covering it. There was no a similar book for football, rugby, athletics or tennis (although as new television sports, both snooker and darts did get their own BBC guides in the 1970s). One reason why this might have been the case is that cricket is a very technical sport, and many viewers not being aficionados of the sport may have needed some additional support to appreciate precisely what was happening on the screen. The book’s editor, the BBC’s principal television cricket commentator Brian Johnston, summed up his own thoughts about who the book was for: it was an ‘armchair’ guide for listeners and viewers who had started to follow the game on radio or television but still had ‘rudimentary knowledge of the game’.¹