Making waves: The thinking behind TalkSPORT's award-winning cricket coverage

POWER LIST INTERVIEW: TalkSPORT cricket editor JON NORMAN gives NICK FRIEND his thoughts on the station's progress since taking the rights to England's tour of Sri Lanka in 2018 and the nuances involved when putting together a commentary team

The news in April last year that Test Match Special had lost the rights to cover England’s tours of Sri Lanka and West Indies was met with a predictable furore.

As a species, human beings find change uncomfortable; it is met with an inherent distrust, a constant questioning, eagle-eyed viewers waiting at each juncture for even the slightest of missteps.

And thus, given the prestige and badge of honour held by the BBC’s flagship programme, TalkSPORT’s triumph in the contest for the rights – the first time since 2005 that TMS had lost out for an overseas tour – caused a considerable, if anticipated, online stir.

“A national disgrace,” exclaimed one tweeter. “This is literally the worst thing I have ever read on Twitter,” suggested another on a website, of course, that exists as a tankard of hyperbole, where even the most equal of debates can be given a one-sided blemish.

Jon Norman, TalkSPORT’s cricket editor, remembers the day well. A one-time producer of the show that brought Andy Gray and Richard Keys to the radio station, he is well-versed in the industry’s high-pressure stakes.

“I remember the day that it was announced that TalkSPORT had the rights and social media erupted,” he says. “I can’t lie – it wasn’t wholly positive.

“I think the relationship between cricket listeners and Test Match Special is quite unlike any other relationship in world sport, so there was always going to be a lot of focus on what we did, and the standards that had been set before were incredibly high.

“But I think as time went on and people listened to what we produced, I think we put a lot of people at ease.

“The reasons that people were critical were widespread, but essentially I suppose for a lot of people they enjoyed Test Match Special and they had no interest in listening to anything else.

“But for me, I just cut out the white noise really. There was a lot of people saying a lot of things, but essentially I listened to one or two key individuals. I set myself the task of putting together the best cricket broadcast I could possibly do. That’s it. It was very simple. That’s how I went about things.

“It was never anything to do with producing a broadcast that was different from Test Match Special. It was about producing the best cricket broadcast that I could possibly do. In the main, I suppose the reaction and response on social media certainly mellowed.”

^{Mark Nicholas and Darren Gough are central to the station's coverage}

There was early vindication in the form of an award from the Sports Journalism Association, with its efforts in Sri Lanka picked out even in a year that saw England reach the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup.

A year on, and Norman has been thrilled by the early progress. The station is committed to its coverage of the sport going forward; this winter’s tour of South Africa provides the next instalment of the broadcaster’s fixtures, before England’s multi-format trip to India in late 2020, meaning that all of England’s overseas major bilateral trips through to 2021 will be broadcast by the specialist sports station.

It is a schedule that has allowed Norman to build and mould a team – the central aspect of any such project, even more so given the iconic names and voices to have graced the English game both on screen and on the airwaves.

“It was certainly one of the toughest jobs because it’s about creating a balance across the names that you bring in,” Norman admits, speaking to The Cricketer after he was named in the publication’s Power List, which cited the 44-year-old’s longevity in the role.

He has long-since travelled on England’s overseas trips with TalkSPORT, and he singles out the time he spent among the Barmy Army as a key influencer in the makeup and direction of the station’s approach.

“There is a perception of what they are and how they work, but I found sitting in with them such an eye-opener to their very varied and rich demographics across class, age, geography,” he explains.

“And that for me was very important for TalkSPORT’s cricket coverage – that we made note of the wide range of people in this country who genuinely love cricket and expect the best that can possibly come from it, but maybe aren’t acknowledged as much as some other strands of society.”

The result has been a varied commentary team. On the face of it, Gareth Batty appeared a low-key beginning, though he carried rare insight into a number of the players in England’s Sri Lanka party.

Batty himself had been involved in the side’s 2016 tour of India, while also playing alongside Rory Burns, Ben Foakes and Sam Curran at Surrey.

Matt Prior’s appointment, meanwhile, brought him back into the game four years after his final international appearance. Despite the way in which his England career came to an end, history paints him as a key member of one of English cricket’s most successful eras.

^{Ben Stokes made 258 at Cape Town last time England toured South Africa}

“I was conscious of the fact that I would like cricketers who would be able to speak with first-hand knowledge from, perhaps, the 1980s through to current day,” Norman says of the group he put together.

“We just about managed that. I wanted credibility. That was very important. I needed former players, who had current links with the side – guys who could look out there and they’d know intrinsically what’s going on.

“But essentially, the importance for me was bringing in people who had a genuine love of the game, a high level of technical knowhow so we could explain exactly what was going on out there to the listener, good life stories but also were people you would identify with TalkSPORT.

“It would have been much easier for me to get very familiar sounding voices as part of our coverage, but the fact that we had four series meant that I could introduce these guys.

“Prior, who had been out of the game for four years, Batty has only ever really worked for TalkSPORT, Steve Harmison hasn’t had regular radio gigs.

“Even Mark Nicholas, for all his brilliance and experience, he’s been on TV in this country spending his winters in Australia. Darren Gough has been presenting his own all-sports football show for ten years. Again, he’s not someone necessarily linked with cricket radio in this country. That, for me, was very exciting.”

Naturally, the move has come with its challenges. Initially, some parts of the country struggled to access TalkSPORT 2 due to the station’s digital radio coverage, though that issue has now been largely eradicated.

Yet, after an unprecedented summer of cricket, Norman holds out hope for a similarly successful winter. “It can’t have hurt, can it?” he asks, pleadingly, of the effect that a combination of a World Cup win and a thrilling Ashes series has had on a nation that, at times this year, has seen cricket transcend itself into the wider domain.

The civilised nature of the single-hour time difference between England and South Africa offers further promise as the broadcaster looks to build on its early form.

“You don’t have to be getting up at 4am or staying up until 10pm to listen,” he laughs. “It’s always an iconic series that always conjures up fantastic narrative.

“There’s no reason why that interest can’t continue to spill through to that series and beyond.”