Guerilla Cricket

Last updated

Guerilla Cricket is an Internet radio site that broadcasts commentaries of cricket matches internationally, as a separate entity from those produced by official organisations such as the BBC. It was set up in 2014 up by alumni of Test Match Sofa, an earlier alternative commentary site. [1] [2] Broadcasts have emanated from a variety of sites in London, where the commentators describe the television coverage to listeners, while engaging in wide ranging discussion of the cricket and anything else taking their fancy.

Contents

Since international cricket has returned following the COVID-19 pandemic, the site has utilized Zoom to ensure that its commentators are socially distant while continuing to provide commentary. [3] This has allowed the use of commentators based outside of England, including Australia, Singapore, and the United States. [4]

Ireland vs Pakistan

Guerilla Cricket successfully bid for the exclusive radio rights [5] to Ireland's inaugural Test match against Pakistan, beating both the BBC and talkSPORT to be the official radio partners of Cricket Ireland. The game was held at Malahide, near Dublin, from May 11–15, 2018. It was the first time the team commentated live from the match itself.

Coverage

While initially focused on England's international cricket matches, the service has developed over a number of years to cover major series involving India, Pakistan, Australia and South Africa, as well as World Cup and IPL T20 cricket. Perhaps the most unusual coverage was of the Under 19 World Cup game between England and Namibia. [6]

Sense of humour

Guerilla Cricket is known for its sense of humour, irreverence and surrealism, in sharp contrast to the formal nature of official broadcasts such as Test Match Special. Its method of operation puts it beyond the reach of the game's controlling body in England, the England and Wales Cricket Board, and it is unlikely that any current test players would be allowed to appear. [7] The site has benefited from social media in its commentary, unlike traditional, one-way, broadcasting, which allows an exchange of information. [8] A fan of the site has been seen wearing a gorilla costume at matches. [9]

UK General Elections

As well as providing cricket commentary, Guerilla Cricket also provided on-air coverage of the UK General Elections in 2015 and 2017, [10] providing their usual irreverent views as events unfolded. Key events were marked with musical jingles provided by James Sherwood who has provided a number of songs which are used within the cricket commentary, including the Guerilla Cricket theme tune.

Fundraising appeals

A number of appeals have enabled Guerilla Cricket to remain on-air and broadcast worldwide free commentary. In July 2015, the site ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise £3,000 to broadcast the 2015 Ashes series live from the Jetlag Bar in London. [11] A subsequent campaign the following winter raised over £5,000 to broadcast test series in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. [12] More recently, a campaign has raised nearly £3,000 to enable the team to cover Ireland's inaugural Test match.

Related Research Articles

John Arlott English journalist, author, and cricket commentator

Leslie Thomas John Arlott, OBE was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur. With his poetic phraseology, he became a cricket commentator noted for his "wonderful gift for evoking cricketing moments" by the BBC.

<i>Test Match Special</i>

Test Match Special is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. It broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 LW and local MW frequencies, BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra (digital) and via the internet to the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. TMS provides ball-by-ball coverage of most Test cricket, One Day International, and Twenty20 matches and tournaments involving the England cricket team.

The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club since 1903. England, as a founding nation, is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status. Until the 1990s, Scottish and Irish players also played for England as those countries were not yet ICC members in their own right.

Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer and broadcaster. He played for Hampshire from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement.

Riverside Ground Cricket ground

The Riverside Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as the Emirates Riverside until the end of 2021, is a cricket venue in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, England. It is home to Durham County Cricket Club, and has also hosted several international matches.

Kerry James O'Keeffe is a former Australian cricketer and a current cricket commentator for Fox Sports. O'Keeffe played 24 Test matches and two One Day Internationals between 1971 and 1977.

BBC Sport Sports division of the BBC

BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC Television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flagship analysis programmes such as Match of the Day, Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Today at Wimbledon and previously Grandstand. Results, analysis and coverage is also added to the BBC Sport website and through the BBC Red Button interactive television service.

James Edward Maxwell AM is a sports commentator with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation best known for covering cricket.

Andy Zaltzman British comedian and author

Andrew Zaltzman is a British comedian and author who largely deals in political and sport-related material.

Isa Guha English cricketer

Isa Tara Guha is an English cricket commentator, television and radio cricket broadcaster, and a former England cricketer who played in the 2005 World Cup and the 2009 World Cup. She cites winning the World Cup in 2009 as a career highlight. She played as a right-arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batter. She appeared in 8 Test matches, 83 One Day Internationals and 22 Twenty20 Internationals for England between 2001 and 2011. She played domestic cricket for Thames Valley and Berkshire.

Arlo White British sports broadcaster

Arlo James White is an English sports presenter and commentator, originally from Leicester. He is the lead play-by-play voice of NBC Sports' live coverage of the Premier League in the United States and the Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer. White previously worked for BBC Radio 5 Live as a football, cricket, and American football commentator, and for the Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer.

Alison Mitchell is an English cricket commentator and sports broadcaster. She was the first woman to become a regular commentator on the BBC's Test Match Special, and has been commentating on men's and women's international cricket around the world since 2007. She also spent many years reporting and commentating on a variety of sports for BBC Radio 5 Live and Five Live Sports Extra, including Olympic and Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open and Open Golf. In March 2014, she was voted SJA Sports Broadcaster of the Year 2013 by members of the Sports Journalists' Association. She is also the first woman to have called men's cricket ball-by-ball on ABC Radio Grandstand in Australia.

Donna Charmaine Symmonds is a Barbadian lawyer and sports commentator.

Mel Jones Cricketer

Melanie Jones OAM is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented Australia women's national cricket team.

Test Match Sofa was a radio programme providing cricket commentary for all England test matches and selected One Day Internationals. The programme was available worldwide, and broadcast on the Sports Tonight Live channel serving as alternative commentary to the BBC's Test Match Special which is only available in the United Kingdom. In 2012 Test Match Sofa was taken over by The Cricketer magazine.

Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group, and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has played a major role in the increased commercialisation of British sport since 1991, and has sometimes played a large role inducing organisational changes in the sports it broadcasts, most notably when it encouraged the Premier League to break away from the Football League in 1992.

Jarrod Kimber is an Australian cricket writer and film-maker. He came to prominence as the founder of the cricketwithballs blog, before working as editor of SPIN Magazine and then as a writer for ESPNCricinfo. He has written five books on cricket and was jointly responsible for the award winning film Death of a Gentleman.

BT Sport British sports channel

BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels provided by BT Consumer; a division of BT Group in the United Kingdom and Ireland that was launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Broadcast Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. BT Sport is available on the BT TV, Sky and Virgin Media television platforms in the UK and Sky, Eir TV and Vodafone TV in the Republic of Ireland.

Adam Collins is an Australian cricket journalist and broadcaster. He was named the 2020 Cricket Writers' Club Christopher Martin-Jenkins Broadcaster of the Year.

References

  1. ↑ "Test Match Sofa". BMC Sport. 22 October 2014.
  2. ↑ "Live cricket commentary: South Africa vs England, Durban Day 1". The South African. 24 December 2015. Archived from the original on 1 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "@guerillacricket". Twitter. 7 July 2020.
  4. ↑ "@guerillacricket". 7 December 2021.
  5. ↑ "Guerilla Cricket wins radio rights to Ireland's Test debut". ESPN Cricinfo. 6 May 2018.
  6. ↑ Jez, Messy (12 February 2016). "Guerillas in the Night".
  7. ↑ Marozzi, Justin (29 July 2015). "Join the revolution to save cricket!". The Spectator.
  8. ↑ "How social media has changed the way cricket fans consume the game". Scroll.in. 8 April 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  9. ↑ "Pakistan vs England, Third Test: Taylor and Bairstow dig in". The Daily Telegraph. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  10. ↑ sherwoodjam (2015-05-06). "Election Night on Guerilla Cricket". SherwoodJam. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  11. ↑ "Guerilla Cricket Ashes Appeal". Kickstarter (in American English). Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  12. ↑ "Guerilla Cricket Winter Warmer". Kickstarter (in American English). Retrieved 2016-08-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.