The popular if not annoying song Video Killed the Radio Starr often comes to mind when trying to find a radio station that covers ball by ball cricket commentary.
Depending on which side of the equator you live, you may find yourself gearing up for the first two World Cup opening matches.
I may be a bit biased, but despite all the television technology that is available, I still prefer good old fashion radio commentary.
Not that the television technology helps us blind folk in anyway, but we often find ourselves having very little, if no choice whatsoever but to listen to the television commentators, simply because we have no means of finding radio commentary. I often find myself wondering if the group who made that silly little foot tapping bubble gum sounding song knew how accurate those five words would turn out to be?
Like most people, my opinion is that there has been no better than the 92 World Cup, which was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand 23 years ago. And yet, it feels like a few short years ago when I had to set my alarm to wake up at weird and wonderful times, and strain my ears to try and pick up every word of the appalling radio link between South Africa and Australasia.
I was attending my schooling in South Africa at the time, as there was and still is no suitable school for blind students in Zimbabwe.
You can well imagine the flack I had to endure when the seniors found out that I was from Zimbabwe, and that I supported them as if my entire life depended on it. The big loud mouthed arrogant Afrikaner, who always thought he knew it all would often drive me to the point of insanity, and had it not been for my friend the radio, I honestly don’t know if I would have survived.
It is also quite a coincident that we are celebrating World Radio Day on the Eve of the World Cup.
The sad part about all of this is that despite wonderful apps such as TuneIn radio and VPN one Click, hundreds of thousands of cricket lovers around the world will be deprived of listening to ball by ball cricket coverage, due to contractual rights which now dominate the world.
Gone are the days of been able to tune into many of the cricket covering radio stations, and enjoy the cricket as much as any sighted person would on television. But, this isn’t necessarily about blind people not being able to listen to ball by ball cricket coverage, it is about allowing cricket lovers who have no access to television to be part of the World Cup.We have to move with the times, and time waits for nobody, that much is excepted by most, and the use of smart phones are the norm for most of us as well. But those who implement these changes also need to remember that by doing so, they stand a real risk of losing hundreds of thousands of loyal cricket lovers.
By all means, bring in the TuneIn Apps.
Use the smart phones, but don’t block and take away the pleasure of those who have been loyal for so many years.Follow @denniscricket_
Totally agree. They seem to not care about what cricket fans want or need. Just about money. Ww are lucky here in Australia as ABC Grandstand available for most games and they do a good job and are much more entertaing than the likes of Slats and co who can lull me to sleep.