91Èȱ¬

Thanks, TMS!

Yes, a wonderfully exciting finale to the Twenty20 competition and,yes, this frivolous form of the game is here to stay. I see nothing wrong with that at all as long as it doesn't interfere with the real game of cricket and, in particular test cricket. Cricket purists may disagree with me but we have to move with the times.

The comparison may not be particularly apposite and there is a lot of doubt about what really happened back so many years, but I don't imagine football purists were particularly enthusiastic when, in 1823, someone picked up the ball and ran with it, giving birth to rugby football.

But I think we should realise that Twenty20 is a completely new ball-game (sorry!) and that, not too far in the future, it may break away completely from the traditional game of cricket. The signs are there. It may be difficult to keep Twenty20 under the auspices of the current cricket authorities and simply enjoy, for the benefit of cricket in general, the large amounts of cash that T20 is generating. Why should the promotors and financiers of T20, who have very different interests, be happy with that once they realise that they have discovered the goose that lays golden eggs?

Anyway, back to now. The selectors may think they have taken a bold decision in bringing Harmison back intio the squad, but, for me, that is just more tinkering. Harmison will obviously have to play at Edgbaston so the question is, who will he replace and who will Collingwood replace, if he comes back into the team? The easy answer is Broad and someone else.

The correct answer is Harmison for Broad and Collingwood on drinks duty. Collingwood has done nothing since he was left out from the Headingley test and, to me it is incomprehensible that, if he wasn't good enough for Headingley, for good reasons, he is suddenly OK again, a couple of weeks later.

One would have to have a degree in psychology and, perhaps, conspiracy theory, to understand what the selectors are up to. I have neither.

In case someone may have misunderstood what I have just said, I am delighted that Harmison is back in the squad and, clearly, the team. Even tinkerers sometimes get it right.

people seem to be assuming that because collingwood is "back" in the squad he will play. id be surprised if he did - i suspect it will be sidebottom for pattinson and harmison for broad. bold move if they do that - harmison and sidebottom arnt completely hopeless bats but they are number 10s at best. monty and jimmy tbh struggle to be valid number 11s. in other words more pressure is being put in top order

Glad to hear that Aggers will be back - hope the problems that took him away in the middle of the last test are resolved.

Good commentary team , except for the omission of Tuffers - he's ace and I hope he's back later in the Test Series.

Let's hope the boundary rope is as close as Dougie Brown ever gets to the commentary box during an England Test match. Be honest - who wants to hear a Scotsman's views on English cricket? He couldn't help mentioning during the N.Z. one dayers recently that (apparently) there are more cricket clubs in Scotland than in England - well done Mr Agnew for questioning their quality in reply.

get tuffers back in, and i hope boycott features regularly as his comments are almost always right..

Be honest - who wants to hear a Scotsman's views on English cricket? He couldn't help mentioning during the N.Z. one dayers recently that (apparently) there are more cricket clubs in Scotland than in England - well done Mr Agnew for questioning their quality in reply.

What a pompous thing to say! I enjoy Dougie Brown's contributions much more than a number of other TMS commentators. His observations are refreshingly cricket-related and his tone of voice is lively and attractive. I would happily lose CMJ and Gus Fraser to accommodate Brown. Moreover, he is right when he says that there are more Scottish cricket clubs per head of population than there are in England; never mind the quality, this implies a popular interest that surely TMS exists to serve, or does TCCNo11 think Sports Extra doesn't broadcast north of Berwick?

Are you Dougie Brown? The equivalent would be a football player from the Faroe Islands commentating on Brazil v Italy - what does he know about international Test cricket when he only plays for an associate member? I think you'll find you're on your own if you prefer Dougie Brown to CMJ.

Dougie Brown has played for England, though only in ODIs, not in Test matches. He made his ODI debut in 1997 against India, plus a long first class career. So he's hardly a no hoper in cricketing experience; and certainly no less experienced than many of the TMS team.

The football analogy is a poor one, you would expect someone like John Motson to commentate on Brazil v Italy; but to what level did he play to? He probably wasn't even first pick in his back garden.

Agnew, Fraser, Marks, Selvey, Boycott, Tuffnell, Stewart - all TMS commentators with Test match experience. Blofeld and CMJ have years of experience, are national treasures, are engaging, admired and respected.

Out of interest, how would John Motson replacing Roddy Forsyth go down?

nice article, i was at t20 finals day on saturday and it was stunning. atmosphere was really good too.
shame about some of the comments, tho; fair enough if you don't like dougie brown because of his commentary, but disliking him because he's from Scotland seems unfair. As for the non-test nations thing, remember Ireland in the World Cup?
by the way...
"Songs like Somewhere Only We Know and Everything Changes have been major hits for the band." Let's hope any of Keane don't read that before you (hopefully) change it - the song is called Everybody's Changing. ;)

Alison is off the Beijing? Wow! So, not only is she extremely knowledgeable about cricket, but she is also an expert on at least one of the Olympic sports. Which one?

Sports commentary, summarising and reporting requires such a full knowledge of the sport, in order to impact useful information to the publc, especially for the publically-funded 91Èȱ¬. To have such knoledge of more than one sport, as Alison does, is truly remarkable. I say well done to her.

She is certainly going to be missed. Many times during test match special this summer between the overs, Geoff Boycott (100+ tests) was just about to impart his opinion when, no, we are off to the boundary to find out what expression Andre Nel had on his face when he came out to hand the batsman a replacement pair of gloves, or have a count of the number of plastic beer cups in the snake. Yes, Alison will be missed. I hope the listeners to the Olympics coverage will enjoy her as much as the cricket fans have done so.

Boo HOO Keane frontman
As interesting as a dirty dishcloth

Bring in Noel Gallagher

#13: she's an expert on synchronised badminton.

There's some proper pompous so and sos on here. Alison Mitchell is absolutely fine and adds to the TMS experience. As for Dougie Brown: wasn't he one of the Comedians? I think he played the milk man in KES and his sister was in Corrie.

Spot on, those of you who have praised Alison Mitchell. She is very good. And yes, levdavidovich, what a nice surprise to hear her voice just when we thought we were going to hear again what Sir Geoffrey said five minutes earlier.

The 91Èȱ¬ rarely makes mistakes when it brings new people into its cricket "team" but, sometimes, it does let people go on a bit too long.

I'm placing 3 minutes 29 seconds before Jonathan Agnew starts badmouthing Twenty20, saying how awful it is and badgering someone or other to say how the ONLY cricket they like is Test cricket.

I'd give even shorter odds on Vic Marks doing the same but no-one listens to him when he's on.

Is there any chance Tuffers can replace Gus Fraser?

Sorry to hear that Henry and Geoffrey are going to carry on after enduring such a poor run of form this summer. This is nearly offset by hearing Vic marks is going to feature. We've not been getting enough Mike Selvey this summer. He's knowlegable and informative.

Not sure Alison Mitchell adds a great deal, but if having her means we get less Boycott, then you're probably not paying her enough.

#19: I also wanted the Cat to stick around but I thought Gus had one of his better games - actually daring to criticise the England set-up -a step-up for him.

@ 20 - Hank Quinlan

In your opinion - certainly not in mine.

I rate Henry, Geofff, Alison and, obviously, Aggers - Vic is a favourite of mine, I also welcome the newer voices, particularly Tuffers. I rue TMS letting Jeremy Coney go, his commentating on the NZ series was excellent; I see SKY have picked him up and wish TMS had held on to him for the SA series.

keane? KEANE? a member of Keane taking up valuable space in the holiest of holies, the TMS commentary box?

because he likes cricket?

i'm going to have to lie down now.

could you possibly give us some sort of notice so i could arrange to not be listening at the time?

i'd hate my radio to end up in next door's garden just because the TMS guest policy has a quality control failiure.

other than that, carry on, excellent as always etc etc

Ridiculous decision to drop Broad for this test. He has shown that he is in far better form with the bat than Collingwood and I would've played him as a batsman, who bowls a few overs. Collingwood isn't getting runs whereas Broad is, and Collingwood is unlikely to take as many wickets as Broad. It drives me mad when selectors go for squad favourites, regardless of their form. Players should be judged on their performances and if that were to happen then Broad would be there instead of Collingwood.

Broad needs to be rested ; he looked exhausted.
Why wear out such a promising possible all rounder with overplaying him ?

Dougie brown needs to be permanently rested -scottish accent+cricket= ugh.

Bye bye Vaughany. Come on Shah!

First of all I think it needs to be stated that some of the comments relating to the excellent Dougie Brown are both ridiculous and offensive .
He has been a first rate representative of professional cricket , ask the PCA , and one of the most intelligent and articulate observers of the game . He has been great when given a full TMS role in the past and is totally wasted in the ridiculous ' roving ' role , as was the excellent Alison Mitchell .
A TMS with the above two intelligent and articulate people would be hugely preferable to one full of Phil Tufnells .
The TMS team for this match is excellent ,although CMJ is always missed .

Many thanks !

Listening to this for 3 hours now... was a bit disappointed when the lunch guest wasn't Tom from Keane as announced in your blog... or is he planned for another part of the program? It's the first time I listen and I have no idea if this 'View from the Boundary' is a special part of the program. Has anyone an idea at what time of the day this could be on?

Does anyIf I may, I’d just like to say how much I enjoy the 91Èȱ¬â€™s test match coverage.

Also, which of the following is true:
1) levdavidovich has way too much time on his hands
2) levdavidovich fancies Alison

If you announce a guest (like for today Tom Chaplin of Keane) and that guest isn't going to be present as announced, could one the commentators on TMS say so?!! It was announced on the band's website that Tom will be on your program today with a link to this blog and I guess many fans have tried to catch the chat with him. It would have been nice to know from the beginning that he wouldn't be part of the program and save us a lot of time... :-(((