Test Match Special


Test Match Special is a British cricket radio programme, originally covering exclusively Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. The programme is available on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and on BBC Sounds in the United Kingdom and, where broadcasting rights permit, 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.

History

was the first broadcaster to cover every ball of a Test match. Live cricket had been broadcast since 1927, but originally it was thought that Test match cricket was too slow for ball-by-ball commentary to work. However, Seymour de Lotbiniere, who was responsible for live sports coverage and who went on to become head of outside broadcasts at the BBC, realised that ball-by-ball commentary could make compelling radio. In the mid-1930s he got Howard Marshall to begin commentating on cricket, rather than only giving reports. From the mid-1930s to the 1950s the amount of ball-by-ball commentary gradually increased, but it was not until TMS was launched in 1957 that every ball was covered for their British audience.
Robert Hudson was responsible for the launch of TMS, writing to his Outside Broadcasts boss Charles Max-Muller in 1956, proposing broadcasting full ball-by-ball coverage of Tests rather than only covering fixed periods, and suggesting using the BBC Third Programme frequencies, since at that time the Third Programme only broadcast in the evening.
TMS became a fixture on Radio 3's medium wave frequencies until Radio 3 lost them in February 1992. The programme moved to Radio 3 FM that summer and the following summer the morning session was broadcast on Radio 5, switching to Radio 3 for the afternoon session. The launch of Radio 5 Live in 1994 saw TMS move to Radio 4 long wave. Coverage on long wave ended at the conclusion of the 2023 season as part of the decision to end Radio 4's long wave opt-outs.
2002 saw the launch of Radio 5 Sports Extra, and Digital radio was seen as the solution for "where to put" TMS, and as a way for cricket fans to avoid broadcasts of the Shipping Forecast, The Daily Service and Yesterday in Parliament which would otherwise interrupt the cricket on long wave.
From 1973 to 2007, Test Match Special was produced by Peter Baxter. Halfway through 2007, Baxter retired and was replaced by Adam Mountford, previously the Five Live cricket producer. Mountford was aged just one when Peter Baxter became involved with TMS.
Full commentaries are now available for thirty days on BBC Sounds, and since late-2015 a "live-rewind" feature has been available.
Format changes include the addition of daily live weather forecasts and reports on the domestic county championship for home series, plus an end of day summary with Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott. After Boycott left Test Match Special in 2020, Agnew now conducts the end of day summary alongside Michael Vaughan.
Calypso-tinged theme music from the track "Soul Limbo" by the American soul band Booker T. & the M.G.'s is played at the beginning and end of TMS coverage each day.
In December 2008 the BBC won the UK radio rights up to 2013. On 26 January 2012 the ECB announced a further six-year deal covering home Tests until the 2019 Ashes. In 2017 the ECB agreed a new deal with the BBC to cover England cricket on radio from 2020 to 2024 alongside the new rights for BBC TV coverage of live Twenty20 Cricket and Test match and ODI International highlights.
In September 2021, Melissa Story became the youngest ever commentator on TMS, an accolade previously held by Christopher Martin-Jenkins.
The BBC also covers winter series but has lost certain rights to talkSPORT over the years as broadcasting rights for tours are controlled by the host country and it is not uncommon for there to be disputes. In 2001, Agnew was forced to broadcast by mobile phone from the ramparts of Galle Fort, overlooking the Sri Lankan ground, when the BBC were locked out.
On 31 July 2023, TMS aired its final broadcast on BBC Radio 4 LW ahead of the end of separate scheduling for Radio 4's long wave transmissions in 2024 and their planned future closure.

Commentators

In a Test match three or four commentators and three or four summarisers are used in rotation; each commentator "sits in" before the microphone for twenty minutes, and each summariser for thirty minutes, at a time. Some of the commentators have nicknames. They have included:
Current TMS commentators include:
The long-standing pattern of a broadcast was commentary during the over followed by a summary or other comments between overs. In recent years, this pattern has changed, with comments being made not just between overs but between balls.
Past summarisers have included:
Current summarisers include:
In addition, visitors from overseas join the TMS team as commentators or summarisers when their country is touring England or vice versa. These have included:
CountryCommentatorsSummarisers
AfghanistanDevender Kumar-
Australia.
Adam Collins
Tim Lane
Geoff Lemon
Jim Maxwell
Alan McGilvray
Ian Chappell
Stuart Clark
Aaron Finch
Jack Fingleton
Adam Gilchrist
Jason Gillespie
Matthew Hayden
Mitchell Johnson
Dean Jones
Mel Jones
Justin Langer
Stuart Law
Geoff Lawson
Damien Martyn
Glenn McGrath
Dirk Nannes
Neville Oliver, nicknamed "The Doctor" in reference to his initials and the film Dr. No
Michael Slater
Jeff Thomson
Bangladesh
Roushan Alam
Athar Ali Khan
India
Harsha Bhogle
Prakash Wakankar
Maharajah of Baroda
Aakash Chopra
Deep Dasgupta
Rahul Dravid
Farokh Engineer
Sunil Gavaskar
Ravi Shastri
Cheteshwar Pujara
Ireland
John Kenny
Michael McNamee
Alan Lewis
Niall O'Brien
New Zealand
Bryan Waddle
Jeremy Coney
Stephen Fleming
Iain O'Brien
Ian Smith
Pakistan
Omar Kureishi
Imran Khan
Azhar Mahmood
Wasim Akram
Mushtaq Mohammad
Ramiz Raja
Waqar Younis
Scotland
John Blain
Dougie Brown
South Africa
Gerald de Kock
Natalie Germanos
Neil Manthorp
Daryll Cullinan
Firdose Moonda
Shaun Pollock
Barry Richards
Graeme Smith
Vernon Philander
Sri Lanka
Roshan Abeysinghe
Gamini Goonesena
Russel Arnold
West Indies
Tony Cozier
Roy Lawrence
Fazeer Mohammed
Donna Symmonds
Sir Curtly Ambrose
Carlos Brathwaite
Colin Croft
Sir Viv Richards
Zimbabwe
Duncan Fletcher
Pommie Mbangwa
Henry Olonga

Scorers

The TMS team also includes a scorer. The first was Arthur Wrigley, followed in 1966 by Bill Frindall whose final Test was England's drawn second Test with India in December 2008. Jo King was used as scorer for overseas tours after Frindall stopped travelling. When Jo was unavailable for the 2006/07 Commonwealth Banks Series finals in Australia, Michael Robinson replaced her for the first final at the MCG. Malcolm Ashton became TMS scorer following Frindall's death in 2009. South African Andrew Samson was the scorer on overseas tours from the Ashes tour of 2010/11, and took over from Malcolm Ashton in 2014, for the home series against Sri Lanka and India. Andy Zaltzman became the scorer on the Sri Lankan tour of England in 2016. Having been the scorer on numerous England women's matches, Phil Long made his debut on the programme at the start of the 2019 Cricket World Cup where he and Zaltzman were the scorers.
  • Arthur Wrigley
  • Bill Frindall
  • Jo King
  • Michael Robinson
  • Malcolm Ashton
  • Andrew Samson
  • Andy Zaltzman
  • Phil Long

    Producers and reporters

The producer from 1973 to June 2007 was Peter Baxter, who was also himself a capable commentator. He succeeded Michael Tuke-Hastings, and on his retirement was succeeded by Adam Mountford.

Light-hearted style

TMS has always had a distinctively irreverent style. While it takes seriously its role of describing and commenting on the action, there is also much light relief. Brian Johnston, who was as happy on the stage and working in light entertainment presentation as he was in the commentary box, was the master of this style. This could on occasion lead to hilarity in the box, for instance on one occasion in August 1991 at The Oval when Ian Botham was dismissed "hit wicket" and Agnew said Botham "just couldn't quite get his leg over." This remark led both Agnew and Johnston to collapse in a fit of giggles, which was quickly followed by Johnston's giggly chastening, "Aggers, do stop it!" This clip has become a broadcasting classic and is frequently replayed. In 2005, Radio 5 Live listeners voted it the greatest sporting commentary of all time, with ten times as many votes as "they think it's all over".
Other Johnners classics include, "There's Neil Harvey standing at leg-slip with his legs wide apart, waiting for a tickle", and "...and Ward bowls to Glenn Turner, short, ooh! and it catches him high up on the, er, thigh. That really must have hurt as he's doubled over in pain. I remember when..." and after 2 minutes of typical Johnners fill, he continued, "Well, he's bravely going to carry on... but he doesn't look too good. One ball left."
Listeners' letters and emails are often read out on air. Brian Johnston was once taken to task by a schoolmistress correspondent, pretending indignation, for saying during a West Indies Test commentary: "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey." However, on this occasion he was innocent.
Concern about BBC Sport's commitment to maintaining the tone and style of the programme after its 50th anniversary led to an Early Day Motion being tabled in Parliament by Andrew George MP in June 2007.