Who really won the first Ashes Test – Seven or Fox?

3 months ago 18

As momentum swung wildly in the first Ashes Test, it fell to commentator Mark Waugh – it had to be someone – to say “cricket’s a funny old game”.

Cricket commentary also seemed like a funny old game when his Fox Cricket colleague Michael Vaughan later outed Waugh for watching the races on his phone while he was on-air during the lunch break.

Travis Head celebrates his century on day two of the first Ashes Test in Perth.

Why Waugh would do that while being paid to call one of the great Ashes Tests – five days worth of cricket in a helter-skelter two days – is a mystery, but at least it wasn’t the Golden Bachelor finale on another channel.

With a stunning Travis Head century, Australia won by eight wickets. But what about the rivalry between the two TV networks covering the Ashes – Seven and Fox Cricket on Kayo Sports? How well did they serve fans?

Being free, Seven’s coverage will have had far more viewers, but the trade-off was commercials between every over and occasional cross-promotions for the races and AFLW matches on its digital channels.

At a critical time in the last session, Seven crossed to the news, no doubt sending many viewers scrambling for the remote to find the match on 7Mate, then back to the main channel again after the news.

The cricket was continuous on Kayo – commercials were held until longer breaks – but the streamer costs $30 a month (or $40 for super sharp 4K HD pictures). Perfect to watch in a pub or club, but pricey at home.

Seven had the better balanced commentary team, especially when Ricky Ponting, Tim Lane and Stuart Broad were on-air. For a villain during past Ashes series, Broad was surprisingly engaging and thoughtful.

If James Brayshaw was a reminder of cricket commentary at its old-school blokiest – his best line was saying Head had bought his sunnies at a petrol station – Justin Langer, Greg Blewett, Trent Copeland and a booming Matthew Hayden were assets, as were Alison Mitchell and Peter Lalor with occasional insights.

The only dropped catch: Brayshaw declaring the match won with a Marnus Labuschagne six, when there was still a run to score.

Fox had the commentary brilliance of Adam Gilchrist, Mike Hussey and Kerry O’Keeffe, complemented by Isa Guha’s excellent interviews.

Just as he did at the crease, Dave Warner went hard: forecasting early in England’s second innings that they’d be aiming to score quickly to get Australia in before stumps. That seemed rash at the time; even rasher when England collapsed.

7Cricket commentators Stuart Broad (left) and Matthew Hayden.

O’Keeffe bowled up some of his trademark comedy. When Mitchell Starc (3/55) and Scott Boland (4/33) made everyone forget about Australia’s absent fast bowlers, he said: “Remember when Peter Cummins and John Hazlewood used to be there?”

Vaughan, a former England captain, seemed to be the dominant Fox voice every time he was on-air.

But when Head’s 69-ball century brought out the best in just about everyone, including the gracious Broad in commentary and England captain Ben Stokes on the field, Vaughan forgot he was commentating for a rapturous Australian audience and sulked about England’s “dumb cricket”.

Neither channel had much luck with their match predictions.

Fox Cricket commentators Michael Vaughan and Mark Waugh.

Before lunch on day two, the “Fox Win Predictor” had England a 66 per cent chance compared to Australia’s 33 per cent and a draw’s 1 per cent. A short time later, “Seven Win Viz” had England 75 per cent to Australia’s 25 per cent.

At home, it wasn’t clear whether these forecasts were based on (a) a century of Test match data analysed by a supercomputer (b) a statistician’s gut instinct (c) someone’s guess in the back of the commentary box or (d) Mark Waugh opening his Sportsbet app.

A few hours later, both predictions were hopelessly wrong.

Fox had better graphics than Seven, expertly timed. The best were the “Playbooks” that showed a new batter’s strengths and the bowling plans against him. Also, “Fox X-Ray”, a biomechanical image of a batter’s weight distribution as he moved into a shot, and the “Speedgun” stats that showed how much England’s pace bowling slowed in the second innings.

Fox used the time between overs, when Seven was running ads, for cutaways that captured the atmosphere in the crowd, the pensiveness of the watching Australian team and, as Head built his matchwinning innings, replays of his boundaries.

If only Vaughan had gone with the story of the final session – an innings that Gilchrist called “one of the great Ashes knocks”; which Broad described as “one of the most incredible innings I’ve ever seen”; and which Stokes called “pretty phenomenal” – rather than focusing on England’s failings.

Next Test, I’ll try the best of both telecasts: watching Kayo in a club, with Seven’s coverage on the mobile – Mark Waugh style – under the table.

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