Saint, sinner, shoosh: Fox Cricket embraces monster staff for inaugural summer
This is the new-age Fox Sports team that now delivers the summer of cricket into lounge rooms across the country like never before. All 109 of them.
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This is the new-age Fox Sports team that now delivers the summer of cricket into lounge rooms across the country like never before. All 109 of them.
There’s no more Bill, Tubby or Chappelli, and sadly Richie, Tony Greig and his car key are no longer with us.
And it is a far cry from the days when the ABC first began televising cricket in black and white in the early 1960s with just one camera from behind the bowler in a highlights package each day.
This summer Fox Sports have 40 cameras positioned at each Test venue to produce the cricket in 4K quality.
As we found out during Sandpapergate in South Africa earlier this year, they miss nothing. It is a huge operation that’s all about delivering a product that will convince sporting fans to buy Foxtel subscriptions.
They need an edge over free-to-air.
“It’s massive,” head of television Steve Crawley says, “for a director to sit there for seven hours and have 40 camera angles to choose from.
“What has changed is the innovation, more so than the size of the staff. Our producer Brad McNamara captained NSW. He links in all the innovation.
“Our advantage is that when our opposition (Channel 7) go for an ad break between overs, we’re working our magic with all the innovation and detail. For the younger audience it’s very important we stay on the pace.”
This coverage is much bigger than the household names who front it.
The make-up artists, wardrobe, technicians, producers and directors are as vital as Warnie, Gilly, Mark Waugh, Mike Hussey, Kerry O’Keefe, Isha Guha and Michael Vaughan, who Crawley describes as the contemporary Greig.
“We’ve spoken as a whole group about this being our first Test match together,” he said.
“It’s so much a team environment. If one person doesn’t do their job we’re doomed. Everyone has to contribute. Everyone has to lift.
“We have the best commentary team in cricket but we need to prove ourselves and we will.
“They are all world class but we’ve got to work hard over a long period of time to get the audiences we need to get.”
One of biggest improvements is the co-operation of the players.
They are even available for interviews in drinks breaks. They have allowed cameras into dressing rooms.
“The access has been fantastic,” Crawley said.
“Justin Langer has been so great to deal with. Coaches in that role before wouldn’t allow what we’re doing now.
“Cricket Australia are the most advanced in the world as far as a broadcast partner goes.
“It’s like American basketball and the Formula One cars, where access to the stars is everything.
“That’s what the fans want.
“Test cricket has had its question marks but the players are now doing everything they can to promote it.
“And that’s what it’s all about.”
SAINT
Two unbelievably skilful moments of Australian fielding in the Adelaide Test – the spectacular Pat Cummins run-out and Usman Khawaja’s screamer of a catch
SINNER
Whingeing Victorians who are having a tantrum about Sydney’s new $7.5 million horse race the Golden Eagle clashing with their Derby Day at Flemington. VRC chairman Amanda Elliott accused Racing NSW of lacking respect for the industry. Please. There’s nothing wrong with competition.
SHOOSH
THE poor off-field behaviour of players at one NRL club is causing grief for the coach. Management is disappointed the coach hasn’t been stronger with team discipline. He is under enough pressure to get results in 2019 without the extra drama.
SHOOSH II
Which high-profile sporting media personality cleaned up on Jeff Horn’s first round KO of Anthony Mundine. He had $100 at odds of $41 on Horn winning in round one.
SHOOSH III
WE hear Todd Greenberg and his NRL staff will be moving out of Moore Park into a permanent HQ in Homebush next year. This is a huge win for the game.
The NRL will get $25 million from the sale of the building to the SCG Trust. It also gets the admin closer to the game’s heartland in the western suburbs.
SHOOSH IV
THE Bankwest naming rights sponsorship deal at Western Sydney Stadium in Parramatta is rumoured to be worth a whopping $18 million over seven years.
SPOTTED
RAY Hadley in deep conversation with the NRL’s Head of Football Graham Annesley in the Virgin Lounge at Coolangatta airport. No doubt the Sutton brothers, Bernard, Gerard and Chris, got a mention.
SPOTTED II
VAL Holmes may have quit the Sharks but he’s still hanging around the Shire. We spotted the NFL-bound hopeful with his partner Natalia at Grind cafe in Cronulla on Thursday.
SPOTTED III
CHANNEL 9 star Erin Molan with partner Sean Ogilvy and baby daughter Eliza at Nowra Bowling Club on Wednesday.
LUCKY BREAK FOR GUS
PANTHERS boss Phil Gould is the owner of a really smart horse called Jailbreak who could be heading to the Magic Millions. He is a two-year-old colt likely to run on Wednesday in the $200,000 Wyong Magic Millions 2YO Classic with the aim of making it to the $2 million Magic Millions Classic on January 12.
Jailbreak is trained by Brad Widdup and was an impressive winner at a Hawkesbury trial last month.
NRL MUST COME DOWN HARD
LIKE anyone facing criminal charges, Manly’s Dylan Walker deserves his day in court.
If, however, he is found guilty of harming his partner, the NRL should hand down a life ban.
Walker should never again be allowed to hold a position in rugby league if he is convicted. Not if the NRL is serious about supporting White Ribbon and the domestic violence campaigns.
BEAVIS WON’T RUN
A LOT of mates of veteran player agent Wayne Beavis have been trying to talk him into retiring.
It has been a terrible year for the 70-year-old “consultant’’, who looks after Anthony Griffin (sacked by Panthers), Trent Barrett (in dispute with Manly), Jarryd Hayne (sexual assault charges) and Dylan Walker (domestic violence charges). The drama is taking its toll on Beavis but he is refusing to walk away. “You can’t just desert them,’’ Beavis said.
REFS EARN RISE
THE long-running Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between the NRL and its referees is nearing conclusion. Under the proposed new deal, referees and touch judges will receive a 25 per cent boost over the next four years with the top whistleblowers having the opportunity to earn in excess of $200k per year.
Let’s hope their performances improve by a similar margin.
CHOC CAN’T STOP
WE rang Anthony Mundine on Thursday to check on his first week of retirement, thinking he’d be chilling out and putting his feet up. He picked up the phone all huffing and puffing.
“I’m training, bra,” he said.
“Forty minutes on the bags. I’m going to keep myself fit.”
He is still disappointed about lasting only 90 seconds against Jeff Horn in his final fight. But a comeback won’t happen.
“It’s not the way I wanted to go out,” Mundine said. “I guess it was a reality check from my creator and I’ve got to accept that. I’ll deal with it.
“It’s now about learning how to relax and enjoying myself.”
GORMAN ALREADY QUIZZED
FINALLY, Manly chief executive Lyall Gorman tells us he’s ready to face the NRL integrity unit to be quizzed on the Cronulla salary cap scandal.
“I am in the process of arranging a time for next week,” Gorman told me via a text message. “Just waiting to confirm exact time.”
Gorman was CEO of the Sharks at the time of the allegations but has told investigators he has been too sick for several months to face questioning. Your columnist was concerned for Gorman and rang Manly owner Scott Penn.
Penn assures us Gorman has been at work as normal all off-season.
There are no suggestions Gorman was aware of any cheating allegations but not meeting with investigators until now has delayed the inquiry.
More Sharks officials were interviewed last week over new information that was uncovered from the club’s internet server.
LEWIS TELLS HIS STORY
HERE is another excellent rugby league book about to hit the shelves for Christmas. Cronulla warhorse Luke Lewis has written about his 17 years in the NRL and 324 games.
It is a great read about his cancer scare, the heartbreak of leaving the Panthers, the 2016 grand final triumph, the Clive Churchill Medal and other career milestones.
One of the game’s true nice guys, Lewis has refrained from bagging Phil Gould.
He actually says Gould did him a favour as he won a premiership at Cronulla and the Clive Churchill Medal in 2016.
The departure from Penrith did, however, cost him financially.
“We were two weeks off starting to build our dream house on a property in Orchard Hills, outside of Penrith,” he says. “We had our architectural plans finished, had chosen all our tiles and internal colours and were ready to pour our slab. We had to put that all on hold and we lost our deposit.”
MOORE PLEASE
THIS column has been campaigning for years for ABC Radio to give commentator Andrew Moore a crack at the summer of cricket.
Last year, he was marched out of the office after the rugby league season and not re-employed until the start of the NRL.
What a disgrace.
Finally, Moore was called up for the Adelaide Test. Both he and former Test opening batsman Ed Cowan have been outstanding.
WHAT CRISIS
WHO says Cronulla Sharks are in crisis. Despite the salary cap investigation and the absence of jersey sponsors, the Sharks’ membership figures have increased 8 per cent on the same time last year. All corporate suites for 2019 have also sold out.
Chairman Dino Mezzatesta and CEO Barry Russell remain hopeful the jersey will be fully sponsored by March.
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Originally published as Saint, sinner, shoosh: Fox Cricket embraces monster staff for inaugural summer
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