Test Match Special - Ashes Daily: Jim Maxwell 50 Not Out

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

Simon Mann chats with Australia’s “Voice of Summer” Jim Maxwell who is celebrating 50 years in cricket broadcasting. It’s also 40 years since Jim first appeared on Test Match Special. As well as discussing his career highlights, Jim also takes your questions including his memories of Shane Warne and which commentators he’s enjoyed working with most over the years.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. To embrace the impossible requires a vehicle that pushes what's possible. Defender 110 boasts a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms, a weighting depth of 900 millimeters and a roof load up to 300 kilograms. Learn more at landrover.ca. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. How to Win the Ashes. The Untold Stories of Three Key Ashes series is available now on BBC I Player.

Hello, I'm Simon Mann. Welcome to the Ashes Daily podcast. I'll be talking to Jim Maxwell about his 50 years in broadcasting, plus asking him your questions. So, Jim, 50 years in broadcasting. How did it all start? I had it. It probably started at school, actually. I always had a feel for doing what I'm doing now without ever really believing that it would happen but one of my elder colleagues at the school

I was at Cranbrook School in Sydney was named Peter Mears and he applied for a job in the ABC as a trainee when I was in my second last year so I thought I'll just throw my hat into the ring see what they say were like, I drew a blank and he got the job And that sort of made me think, hmm, I might have another go, because these traineeships came up rarely.

So I did two years later, and I missed out on that one. And then I did various things through university and working in insurance. And I actually came over here in 1972 with the Australian Old Collegians. We played actually 90 games in three and a half months between Honolulu, America, Canada, Bermuda, England. and he ended up in Geneva playing a game there. And I came back, as you probably know, and played at Hampstead a couple of games down there. And I went home and I rang my father from Perth.

And I said, Dad, I'm absolutely illiquid. I'm broke. And I need a fare on the Indian Pacific. And he paid the ticket, bang. I went home. And as soon as I got home my mother said, I saved this from the paper. And it was an advertisement for a traineeship in the ABC.

and without going through it all. Six months later I started working the ABC, having done an audition at a test match sitting in the back of the MA Nobel stand calling the Pakistan-Australia test match, and I think that got me over the line, so I found out a lot later. So I started there in April 1973 as a specialist trainee sport, and I was fortunate to be on the air doing cricket Sheffield Shield within six months, which I thought was all right and I was lucky to have a bloke called Alan McGilvray

who I could watch the game of cricket through his eyes by being in the box and listening to how he used the language, the timing, all those sorts of things that are important in getting the message across. So right time, right place, no doubt about it. I was very fortunate. So you were with Alan McGilveray, who was a familiar voice for older listeners, a testament special.

They'll remember Alan McGilverie. He was a big figure. wasn't he, an Australian cricket broadcast. Voice of cricket. Yeah. Because he was there before television came. He and Vic Richardson and Arthur Gilligan. They were the three famous names for every Ashes tour in Australia.

And, you know, McGillivray, Captain New South Wales in the 30, started working on the ABC before the war. And then after the war, 46, 7, 48 of course, here. The ABC took every ball bowled in the series. It wasn't until 1957 that the BBC. did every ball of a test match. So Australia has been out there in terms of ball-by-ball commentary since Bodyline in 1932-33.

And McGilverro was a huge part of that for 50 years as the ABC cricket commentator. You were sitting alongside him, weren't you, at the start of your career. Was that intimidating? What was that like? Well, more behind than alongside because he had Lindsay Hassett or Jimmy Burke going back in those days when we're playing in Sydney. Well, he was quite intimidating because he had control of proceedings.

He was the authoritative, almost pontifical in the way he went about as his career moved into the twilight years. But he had a lovely gift of timing. He was told by Sir Robert Menzies, the Australian Prime Minister, McGuroy, you have to bring pausation into your commentary. So he took that up And that's what he did He liked to use the crowd

And they were far more formal days Of broadcasting cricket You know the ball by ball chap It'd do the over The expert had come in at the end There wasn't the conversational style That we have now And we were told

Stick to the facts, right? Don't indulge yourself That's not the way to broadcast People who are listening Want to know the score And who's batting and so on so that's what it was like it was a bit stiff

what was your first test match and how did you get from 1970, I think it's 1977 wasn't it you've yeah how did you make that progress four years to be a test match commentator

oh well someone must have thought that I was doing a reasonable job and eventually got them doing shield games shield games yeah well that was the only other cricket than we had and we used to do a lot of

shield cricket during the week weekend so over and you know also part of this exercise as being a trainee, is not being a trainee cricket, commentator per se, you needed to be able to be versatile. And so we were doing rugby league and rugby union. I even did what we call soccer, you call football at one stage.

And golf, I've done a lot of different stuff. But cricket was always the main bag. And the more so I got older. But 1977, first test was at the SCG, Pakistan in Australia, and a bloke called Imran Khan, took 12 wickets in the match. and they thrashed us by eight wickets. What's your commentary philosophy, Jim? When you sit down in front of the microphone,

you talked about it was rather stiff in the old days. What's your philosophy now, and how has it changed over the years? It's got a lot more relaxed. I credit Brian Johnson with that when I came here in 1983. I realized there was the style of broadcasting that was very much part of the theme, the flavour of Test Match special.

It was different to what we did. because of this formality, as I say. And it wasn't just McGilray, it was every other person around him at the time that was imbued with this idea that you must stick to the facts. And you didn't go telling anecdotes, my goodness, he wouldn't have done that. So it listened me up a bit, but it still took a long while to get to the point, well, where I am now, hopefully, of being relaxed. I don't have any notes, I just want to see the game, talk about it,

I've got a lot of my head, I suppose. Give the score, give them an idea of what's going on between the batsmen of the bowl. A bit of anticipation. That was Norman May, one of our great all-round commentators thing. He said, just give the audience a bit to live off, right? So, you know, broads back at the top of his mark with his bowl. He bounces so far on this over.

Where is this going to go? Will it be right up in the block, all that sort of stuff? Just to give a little anticipation to the events that might follow, and that draws the listener in. You're involving the listener, and that's what McGilvray was a genius at, I thought, if you're really into the game. I mean, there were lots of poets around, lovely with words and eloquent like John Arlett was an example of that. But when I was listening to the cricket from England back in the 60s, I'm telling you, you had to wait until McGilveray came on to get a real flavour understanding of the contest. The colour stuff, that's fine, but I want to know what's going on out there.

but that's just me. I'm a cricket nut. How long did it take you to, you say you loosened up over the years? How long did it take you to do that? And when you started doing that in Australia, what was the reception to that from the listeners? Keith Miller actually had to dig at me one day about a certain remark or just the tone of it. He said, just loosen up a bit, will you?

So I think from that time on I tried to. But again, McGilveray was. still there until 1985. So his influence was paramount. And, you know, we didn't run

on the same street for a few years there in the 80s when all of a sudden the ABC decided, despite the fact that Mack was the number one cricket

commentator. They sent me here in 83 and the West Indies in 84. So I think that heard a bit. Given his circumstances, he lost his wife

and he really clung on to the cricket from a social perspective as well as brain nutrition has something to do because he loved it so much. But, yeah, we eventually got it all going again. But I think it actually took a long, long while before I got to the point where I've been in the last 15 and 20 years.

It really did. To be confident enough working with whoever was there, it's the old story. It's not about putting your foot in your mouth. It's about taking it out. and that's part of the trick of commentary. You don't feel embarrassed unless you say something particularly slovenly. Just get on with it. Because most of the people, when you do say something unusual,

said, what did he just say? Did he say that? And you've moved on. It's not in print, you see, so they can't find it. But I reckon the last 20 years, probably since that 2005 series, I feel as though I've owned what I do more than I did before. I remember, you won't remember this, Jim, but I remember meeting you for the first time in 1994-95

in a press conference after the first day of the Gabba Test match and in those days, the England interview, it wasn't like now you go down in the outfield and do a one-to-one, you do it in the press conference, and my job was to interview whoever England put up on the first day in the press conference, and I was interviewing, I think it was Keith Fletcher came,

England had a bad day, so it was what came to be known as a Duncan day, i, one of the coaching staff, rather than one of the players. And I was interviewing, and I asked him a couple of questions, And my expectation was I was going to have a two or three minutes with it. And I was interviewing. And suddenly this booming Australian voice came in and say, Fletcher, what do you think of this? You know, I thought, who the heck is this so-and-so?

And it was you, Jim. I was very rude. I'm very sorry, Simon. Australians are a bit like that, though. You know, if they see a pause in the conversation, they jump in. But it was a bit shambolic in those days, the organisation of it. It was. Right, let's get to some questions.

Jason from Disbury, an email for Jim. When did you think Shane Worm was special? I think the match against the West Indies in Melbourne, after he'd come back from Sri Lanka, where it made a bit of a mark. It was 92-3 leading up to that famous ball of the century. And he got six for 42 or something in the second innings. And he bowled Ritchie Richardson with one of those variations,

the Zooter or whatever he'd like to call it. He did his own PR very well, but he was extraordinary. And from that moment, I think, I'd seen him on other occasions before, and you thought, yeah, he's got something this fella. And from about that moment on, he thought, this is special.

This is going to be special. So when he did what he did at Old Trafford, did that surprise you? Or you thought, actually, no, I've sort of seen a bit of this before. No, it didn't surprise me. First ball, yes, of course. And I think most of the punter tree thought he was just going to roll his arm over and get himself into the game.

But he bowled a beautiful delivery that dipped and hit and turned. It's just too good for a bloke a bit slower in his feet, I suppose. But it was an amazing first ball. But they had lined it up through the warm-ups. They kept him out of the game. I think there was the game at Worcester. Hick got 100. and he just pulled me out, he's rolled his arm over.

Andy Bryant in Brighton says, well done, Jim, on 50 years. You all sound so enthusiastic, but could I ask if you've ever not enjoyed a test match and why? He says excluding Australian losses, but if you ever not enjoyed a test match, you thought, ah, this is,

I don't want to be watching this, for whatever reason it might be, it might be some acrimony on the field, it might be the dullness of the game. Yeah, there was one game. in Sydney where Anil Kumbla went off about the sportsmanship of the Australians. It was a particularly unpleasant game. And it went back to those days, of course, when the umpires made all the decisions,

there was no technology involved, and there were some rhubabs. There were some really bad ones. Mark Benson was one of them. I can't remember the other. But it was Australia and India at the SCG, and it became very acrimonious. and I remember my old pal there Peter Robuck he went right off and said Ponting's got to be sacked as captain

bring in Cadditch or someone else he really went for the captain in that series because of what he saw as this aggressive Australian behaviour that lacked the grace that was required of a leader and he went a bit hard but I think at that time he wrote for the Sydney Morning

Herald. I think they had more responses than the old faxes and letters than they'd ever had on any other issue over that. So it just reminded you how important cricket was to most Australians. And we were reminded of that again, of course, with the sandpaper gate incident. But that's the one that stands out. That did leave a bad taste. Yeah. Richard Howitt in Cambridge, he says, thank you for coming to England this summer and for your unique contribution to Test Match special. He says, what's your memory of being a young commentator working with Alan McGilver? And we've sort of touched on that. And he says, when and how did you know you had become regarded by the cricketing public

as Australia's leading commentator in succession to McGilver? It's worth explaining, Jim, what the sort of setup is in Australia because you're, I thought, the local man, or you were the local man, aren't you? You're Sydney, someone else is Brisbane, someone else is West Australia, someone else is South Australia. You do the match in your own patch. and it may not be that you do all the games around the whole of Australia, but presumably there was a time when that happened for you,

and you did become, you did every single game. It happened with McGilveray, actually, because the new head of sport who got me to come here and in the West Indies, he said, we're going to have a team, right? And the first team was, and this is interesting. Dennis Commetti, myself and Magulvray. Now, people in England probably don't know about Dennis Commetti. He's probably alongside Bruce,

McAvaney, the most famous Aussie rules commentator, and he was on commercial television for some time after that. So there were the three of us, and then it sort of grew around who was visiting, because there's usually a commentator from that country. But the idea was to have a team, right? A team of experts, same group from most of the series. And it went from there and that's where I was every summer well ever since then although I've missed tours away because I was doing rugby league or rugby union or something else

or there was some other element of the discourse whatever you want to call it that meant that was happening but essentially I was doing all home test cricket from then on and did you did it take a while for the Australian public to sort of embrace you

or did you or did you find that that relationship worked really well quite quickly? Alan McGilroy was employed by the ABC as a commentator on cricket. I've never been employed by the ABC as a commentator on cricket. I've been accepted to, you know, now I've retired and I've come back on a contract, an occasional contract. But I was never in that position, although people regarded me as such in the last 20 or 30 years, but I was just, you know, program officer grade 3 sport because I was still expected until I retired in 2018 to do everything. And I did a lot of other stuff. But no, I never

had that ABC accolade, as it were, but it was assumed, I suppose. And that's the way it's been for the last five years since that official retirement. Janet Somersby says, I just want to before my question, Jim Maxwell is my all-time favourite commentator. I lived in Tasmania for 10 years and watched cricket all over Australia. The Bluntstone Arena in Hobart is beautiful being so close to the water. So my question is, do you have a favourite venue

either in Australia or England? Thank you, Jim, for your insightful comments and lovely personality. That's another ABC thing. Now, Bluntstone is the name of a company that makes boots, right? So on the ABC, you're not supposed to give that notification to the world that the ground is sponsored by someone.

So we called it Boot Park, didn't we? And so that used to go, oh, well look, the SCG has been part of my life forever. I've been a member of the ground since I was 11 years old. It's a big part of me, and I love that place. And Adelaide is, without doubt, one of the best organized, and readjusted grounds given Aussie rules. Football's come to town in a big way.

They've kept some of the character of the ground with the scoreboard and the hill and the rest of it that down are those fig trees at the northern end. So I'd say of the grounds I really like in Australia, those are the two Adelaide and Sydney. Tom Cohen, if you had to pick a BBC commentators 11 from those you have worked with over the years,

difficult question this. who's listening in the back of the box Who would captain This formidable team Who would captain it So you don't have to name your BBC commentators 11 Who would captain it and why Oh well I guess it'd have to captain it

He's been doing it for 30 odd years And he's the main man And it's probably the best ball by war commentator That the BBC have had And they've had a lot of very good ones You know Arlitton Martin Jenkins Brian Johnson There's a long list

Simon Man. There's a long list of very good commentators, but no, Agger's to be the main man because he's got some leadership ability that chap. Kevin Butler says the UK's education system is sometimes blamed for not producing enough good cricketers, male or female. In other words, cricket is not a national obsession in the way it is in South Asia and Australia. How is it that you can produce such remarkable young cricketers, male and female, when the UK appears to struggle by comparison, not ignoring. Kevin says, of course, Ben Stokes' recent heroics. Well, I think it's...

How does Australia do it? It's always been a strong part of our sporting culture, taking on Mother England and so on since the first test in 1877. And I think the spirit of cricket, playing the game, it's been embraced by Australia to the point where it's regarded by a lot of of people as Australia's national game. Aussie rules people may say otherwise, but, you know, Aussie rules has only played in Australia.

At least with cricket, you're playing internationally and you can be top dog as we've just become in the world of test cricket. So there are a lot of role models out there, and it goes back to Bradman and now Warn, Ponting, Gilchrist, you name them, Steve Smith playing here. So with all those superb role models, Glenn McGraw, who's been working on this,

game, you tend to have a production line of people who want to have the desire to play cricket for Australia. That's one of their things, and long may that go on. So I think that's part of it, whereas in this country, football has always been powerful in the culture and the tribalism, and unfortunately, I know money was involved. The taking of cricket off free-to-wear television after 2005 was a... meant that it's a struggle, I think, to sort of proselytize the game

in the way that you'd like to think, as we sit here, it should be. How about climate? That was the very good answer that Trevor Bailey provided. When he came into our box many years ago in Melbourne, he had a tour group, and he sat down, and we were having a chat, the dear old, the King of Shadden Freud was Trevor Bailey,

and he sat down, and we started talking at some point about coaching. And I said, you know, what's the difference? Because we always feel that the MCC coaching book, they're all more formal the way they build their game than the Australians who are a more hand-eye and have a crack. And he said, coaching, it's climate. You have climate, we don't have climate. So that was it.

He got the message across. You remind me another very good story about him at Chelmsford in 1983, he is sitting there in the box with the old boil and Tom Hogan was the left-arm spinner and I said to him what do you think of Australia's new left-arm spinner Tom Hogan from Western Australia and he puffed himself up and he said

Australia's been sending left-arm spitters half he has and frankly none of them can bowl he was a man of very firm opinions very fair opinions he was very very good fun The TMS podcast. Take the Ashes with you this summer. Hear every ball. Live on BBC Sounds.

The Dakar Rally is the ultimate off-road challenge. Perfect for the ultimate defender. The high-performance defender, Octa, 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine and intelligent 6D dynamics air suspension. Learn more at landrover.ca. Call Jonathan. Pie? I want something better than that. No. What's wrong with cool Jonathan Pie? It's really boring. Okay, so let's all do a brain fart. Actually, what about that? Jonathan Pie's

brain fart. It's hilarious. Jonathan Pie, off my chest. Off my chest. Doing the fat, chewing the pie. Chewing the cud. Cud? The title for my new phone in show is Jonathan Pie choose his own sit. I'm just spitballing. Let's just spitball. Jonathan Pie spits balls. Should we just stick with Cool Jonathan Pye? Yes. Call Jonathan Pye. Listen first on BBC Sands. As you always remind us, Jim, when we talk about climate,

that Sydney has more rain than Manchester. It does, yeah. The difference being Manchester, an inch of rain falls over two days, and Sydney, it'll have fallen five minutes. So it's one of the wettest cities in Australia, after Darwin and probably Brisbane. You know, remember Darwin's monsoon. so they'll get a heap of rain but you had the joy of being in sydney a bit of quarantine around

COVID on the last mcc there I go last ashes tour and you're stuck at kudji in your room because it was pouring every day yeah well that that year going into 2002 was the wettest year in Sydney since 1860 so we do get some rain every now and then yes that's true they don't get Stacks of rain in the UAE. Jagdiche is listening there. Jim, what would be one great match or a great innings that you'd love to have commentated on but wasn't able to do so or missed out on? Oh, that's hard.

I mean, I've actually done the commentary on a few of those. And Glenn will remember Brian Lara in 1999 in the West Indies of Jamaica and then, oh, my goodness, in Barbados when he won the game. by one wicket. There have been so many that I've seen that have been remarkable. I suppose if you think about the game

and what you've missed, it'd be Bradman's 254 wasn't it, that Lord's, when he really announced himself in 1930. I reckon he'd done the commentary on that would have been special, yes. And you'd love to have commentated on him, both, I'm scoring 149 out here, wouldn't you?

And then another 100 old Trafford as well, I'm sure you'd have liked that in 1981. Luckily, I wasn't here, but I was, watching and I put my hands on my head every time. He sent one screaming down to third man and all out of the ground over there, yes. Into the confectionery

store and out again. You do confection very well here. In fact you do food extremely well as we've noticed today with the arrival of the pica lily and the pork pies and the scratchings which are down there. Well we won't keep you much longer Jim

before you can get to them but Nick Keithley in Oxford says I'd like to ask Jim which is the best Australian team here's Seen Tour England. Seen Tour England? Poo! It'd have to be in Glenn's time. You know, that era when McGraar and Warren were bowling suffocated the opposition,

even though they had the occasional bad day and didn't get a lot of runs, it didn't matter. Those two always kept Australia in the game. So I think that period which culminated in Australia winning 16 consecutive matches, at the end of the 1990s, somewhere around there. That's as close to as good a team as we've ever had. And there have been a few others besides.

Australia does play powerful, consistent, winning cricket more than most. And they've done that with a bit of luck in this series. So, yeah, I'd say that's in the 90s, yeah. Mary has emailed, she's in Hove. Jim, I see you as an inspiration, especially Kemp. coming back on air after your stroke. I had a stroke myself five years ago and hearing your story gives me faith I can recover.

I mean, what's that been like, Jim? It's all about attitude. You do, as I've said before, you don't want to get too philosophical about this because we all have our own cross to bear and whatever the way we go with whatever happens in life. So whenever I think, And, you know, having a stroke does get you in a slightly depressed mood every now and then,

and you do have to make sure you're taking your medication, unfortunately. So the thing to remember is, well, mate, could have been worse. It could be somewhere else watching from up in the sky. So I try to keep positive all the time, despite the fact that, you know, mobility and part of my brain's bit stuffed. but somehow I can still talk, Simon, so I'm lucky, aren't I? You still can't you? You've just got another four hours to go.

The covers are coming off, aren't they? Not quite at the moment. Anyway, we've got a bit more time on this. I mean, was there a time when you thought, that's it, I'm not going to be a broadcast again? Oh, there was in the 90s when my relationship with the ABC got a bit shaky, and I actually applied for a job with the Sydney Olympics. someone else got it I won't go there

but yeah I had that was a bad bad period yeah I just want to be out of the place I just thought the management was poor and misdirected but it got rectified within a few years and so we moved on patience is the name of the game and I got that from playing a lot of golf

that's the most important club in the bag after your stroke though did you think actually that's it I'm not going to be able to come back and broadcast anymore Initially I was concerned, but I'm soon in the hands of the speech therapist who assured me that I'd be okay, because they did lose my voice for a little bit. But after that, yes, it was pleasing that that part of my brain was not affected by the stroke.

So I was able to get back into it. And thanks to the ABC at the time for encouraging me and bringing me back into the fold when I was less than mobile for a quite a while. There you go, Mary. Jim, just a great inspiration, able to come back from that and broadcast again on this Ashes series. Phil says, I'm listening from an overcast, Exeter, and Jim is always a welcome voice throughout my house.

Although my question could be answered by others as well as Jim, I'd be interested in his views on the long-term future of the ashes, given the way that franchise and different forms of cricket are developing now at such a... rate, there can't be many sports at this level played between just two countries. If it's sensible to look ahead, say, 15 or 20 years, might we still be looking forward to an Ashes series

in the way we do now? Best wishes to all the team, and many thanks to all of you. Well, if we stop looking forward to Ashes series, Test cricket's in trouble because it's still the main event in test cricket as we are seeing so obviously in this series. So it's very important if test cricket's to survive, and I think the players are going to have a bit to do with that,

perhaps more than the administrators who continually looking, it seems to me, as another commercial opportunity in the game vis-à-vis what you've got going on in this country in August, which is ludicrous. But there it is. That's what happens with some administrators who want to find a way to get more people to come and watch. Whatever there is and there is, but you've got to have the support of the players, and I just hope the players all continue to believe that the primal form of the game

is playing red ball test match cricket. And if that's the case, I think it'll go on for a fair while yet. Whether most of the other countries in the ICC will continue to play a lot of test cricket is another point, because it does come back to making a living from the game, as we see from the West Indies, South Africa now, how can they do that? They've got to become mercenaries. So, yeah, it's one of the great things about cricket.

It can have three strong formats. Name me another sport that's got three strong formats. You know, we've got sevens and 15s in rugby. Most sports have just got, they've got one format, and that's that. But cricket has got three. Now, whether the one in the middle, the 50 over will survive is a moot point. The ICC makes so much money out of every World Cup. I think it'll get one for a while.

What's your sense for this series? I mean, do you, it's anecdotal, obviously, but I mean, do you get a sense that in Australia people are absolutely captivated by this series? Oh, yes. They're sitting out there, a lot of them. But those are the ones that are here, aren't they? Those are the diehards who turned up.

But you're back in Australia, you know, it's winter now. Presumably, I don't know what other sports, other seasons. The Aussie rules, we take, you know, a lot of focus on that. only a minor overlap in the evening. Once you pass 9, 10 at night, it's all cricket. And I don't know what the numbers are. It'd be interested to know, but it's on Channel 9, which is free to wear. It's also on Fox. It's on the ABC. It's on SEM. They're broadcasting this as well. So I'm getting the feeling that the reaction is very positive. People want to hear about the fate of their cricketers. And I've had a number of my friends listening.

and thinking, oh, well, to go to sleep, oh, keep listening for a bit longer, and it's been that sort of cricket. You cannot turn the radio off. You're hooked because of the excitement of the contest. Because of basball, because it's so exciting, Jim. Basball, yes. Ben Stokes occasionally plays basball, doesn't he?

Trevor says, congratulations to Jim. He and I are the same age. I wonder if he remembers listening to the 1961 Ashes series, particularly Richie Benno's bowling at Old Trafford when Australia snatched. Victory, says Trevor from the Jaws of Defeet. Or in 64, Simpson, 311 at Old Trafford and Fred Truman taking his 300th test wicket at the Oval.

So yeah, there's broadcasting. There's also listening to broadcasting. And you talked about it there, actually, people staying up and listening through the night in Australia. Well, in those days, you didn't see anything on television until 24 hours later when the film used to come in on the B-O-A-C from London and they'd stick on half an hour of highlights the next night. So you had to listen to the radio if you wanted to find out what was going on.

And I partially remember, 61. I was a bit young and less attentive to it than the next series in 64. But, yes, an outrageous final day and Beno bowling into the footmarks on the advice of Ray Lindball and getting May out bowled behind his legs. And then Brian Close almost won the game if he'd been there for another 10 or 15 minutes like Wood Carragone yesterday but he got caught by Norman O'Neill Behind Square

but England had it won for 154 and Dexter sailing along in the 70s and he was caught grout by old Benno another one of those great entries in the scorebook

a court grout what an Australian name that is this is a bit of a left field question from David's groundwater I'm not sure how far we'll get with this, but he says, guday, at least 20 years ago, I was driving goodness knows where in the outback, listening to the cricket on the ABC,

an extremely droll, Aussie commentator, recounted playing a game in Adelaide with a terrible hangover, and if memory serves me right, taking a hat trick. Does Jim have any memory of that anecdote? Well, was that phlegm? No, he didn't get the hat-trick because when he dropped the catch. I don't recall that one.

He may have got the occasions mixed up, but yes. Well, I'd have got a go with that, David. I thought it was a bit left field that question. Rob Cummings, I know Jim supports East in grey cricket back in Sydney. Why is that? Who was their best import? And you've had some decent players there, have you? Marshall, Jeffrey, Bordcott.

Tony Gregg. And he says, did Broad play? No. Jason Roy is probably the most recent England player to play. There's been a long list of overseas players. Tony Gregg, without doubt, the most influential one of those when he came to Australia and he agreed to come even though after he said yes, he was made England captain

but they weren't playing an away series in the off-season and he came out, he took 75 wickets on pretty poor pitches and Waverley, as East was known then, won the premiership and he had a very important role to play. with the Australian team. Yes, David Warner, of course, spent most of his career there until he decided when he moved House

to go over to Randbik, thought that he's played for them very much. At one stage, we had Brad Haddon and Peter Neville playing in the 11. So, yeah, there's a long history of famous players going back to Sid Gregory many, many years ago, Jack Fingleton. And as I've mentioned on this broadcast,

Hansen Carter, the wiki keeper before and after the First World War who was the first person to crouch behind the stumps. Jim, we've timed this so nicely. We really have. It's just past 12 o'clock. Commentary continues on five sports extra, BBC Sounds, and on ABC in Australia,

but... Radio 4 Longwave listeners are leaving us briefly for the shipping forecast. There you go. There we go. off to the shipping forecast. The shipping forecast has only become really famous for those that aren't interested in it at all,

and there'd be quite a few saying, oh, well, that's for someone else, because of what happened four years ago. And, you know, most of the lads on the team, dare I say it, Simon, maybe even yourself, I'd rather droll to dismiss me now at the same of the shipping forecast. So I thought, let's give it a bit of profile. It must be important to someone.

Why the heck are we having it? So that's where it's all come from. And I'm sorry if I'm a bit overblown on it, but there it goes. It won't last for much longer because it's going to be a comad do-do. That's right. Yeah, no longer will we be broadcasting on Radio 4 Longwave at the cricket after this summer. Jim, what would your advice be to young commentators or potentially young commentators? Some people would say, I'd love to get into cricket commentary.

What would you say to them? I mean, it's probably different. I don't know what it's like in Australia, how different it might be. be from being in England, but what advice would you give to a young Australian who wanted to get into cricket commentary? Be persistent, enthusiastic, persevere, put your foot in the door, send tapes, do anything you can to be noticed. You need to be noticed because, look, unlike when I joined the ABC, there are no trainees anymore. So you really do need to bring something to the argument to get a job as, and what have we got about, eight and nine specialists, I mean,

all-round commentators. And you've got to be able to do either rugby league and cricket or Aussie rules. You need to have those building blocks to get a crack at doing it. And there are other organisations that are doing commercial, radio and TV too, which of course on television, I guess, they tend to go for people who have got a name in the sport rather than a journeyman, a young person who's looking to make their way. But that's about the suggestion. I mean, that's what I did for a few years until the opportunity came up. But the opportunities don't seem to arise as comfortably as that

with a job in the paper, go through the process. You really do have to let it be known that you are able to do the job. and that reminds me of Hasha Boggley whose opportunity came along he sent tapes off to Alan Marks before the 1991 just to remind everyone who Alan Marks is Alan Marks was the head of radio sport management, ran the Olympic Games

was a rugby league cricket commentator a very good all-round commentator but he got into the administration in Australia yeah and he was the producer of our cricket at the time in 91, 90s, to Harsha sent him a tape following a letter

asking if he could be part of the team as the Indian commentator and Alan was impressed enough with what he heard and put Harsher on and well the old cliche and the rest is history folks Yeah I mean he's one of the most famous commentators in India on the IPA

If you go through security in India you go through in the wake of Hasha Bogle and no one will touch you no one will touch you if you go behind Hasha because of his fame. So just one point there, Jim, welcome back to our radio for Longwave listeners. You said, try to get your foot in the door, be persistent.

What does that mean to a youngster? Try to get your foot in the door? Do anything, really? Make the tea, whatever. Make the biscuits, make the cakes, I don't know. Well, not necessarily bad, but, you know, ring that silly old bugger Jim Maxwell or send him an email and say, look, I reckon I can do this, listen to this, give me some feedback, and so on.

that seems to be about the way of it these days if you're going to make an entree. And, you know, there are one or two people on the fringe who should be given a better opportunity in the ABC, but it's a bit of locked into who we've got. And we haven't really got to a point of identifying, it seems to me, someone is doing what I'm doing in the next 10 years.

So I'm probably kicking myself out of a job. I'm saying that, but... Maxwell, you're sacked. Yeah, yeah. You've got someone else. You're too bloody old, get out. Yeah. You're sacked now anyway, Jim.

That's it. We've had enough. You're off. Thanks very much, Jim. Now you're going out? Yeah, thanks very much indeed. It's a pleasure. Yeah, I hope everyone's enjoyed that.

And thank you everyone for listening. And as I've always, always said, it's a privilege to be sitting here talking about the cricket and I hope that I haven't offended anyone more than once. The Women's World Cup is coming. From mid-July, the Football Daily podcast turns its full attention to the international stage. Here is Rapino, and it's scored. It will be your daily dose of World Cup analysis, debate and news.

As we bring you all the action with some of the biggest names in the game. There's a lot more experience in here than what you think. The two I looked at in front of me, I was like, yeah, we can win this. Join us and get ready for a women's world cup like no other. Listen on BBC Sounds. Now, back to your podcast.