It is a tried and proven strategy for all discerning Test match cricket followers.
First, make yourself comfortable in front of the television screen. Next, switch on the live broadcast but turn down the volume. Then, switch on the inspired BBC Test Match Special radio commentary and turn the volume up.
Then allow the likes of Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott entertain as they describe the proceedings unfolding in front of you – along with a whole host of other interesting topics.
We suspect that the Test series recently concluded between India and England – and what a highly satisfactory outcome it was – must surely have prompted a further extension of this practice, because a disagreement over broadcasting payments meant that Sky's television commentators were compelled to operate from a studio in west London while the popular Test Match Special broadcasters were able to observe and report from behind the boundary rope all those miles away in India.
Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here. Many sports lovers who attend competitive events – and here we are thinking not only of cricket but also of football, rugby, tennis and hockey, for example – are able to watch the action unfold ball by ball, pass by pass, tackle by tackle, in real time without the need for any commentary at all.
Could the broadcasters perhaps give the viewers at home the same authentic experience? Simply muting the sound in itself would not suffice, since that would suppress the noise of the crowd as well as the commentators.
The suggestion is this: we don't imagine many sports lovers would want to watch the action in total silence, so the television companies could give their viewers the option of a enjoying the live broadcast with the crowd noise but not the commentary. Then, the viewer could choose to watch Alastair Cook amass another century without the adornments of Gower and Botham, or even Boycott and Agnew.
The technology exists to take the armchair sports fan closer and closer to the action. Stifling the commentators on demand is surely the next step.
