Bangers and Mash!

Commentators are pretty funny guys behind the scenes. They communicate with us in the van by talking on the same microphone that you, the viewer, will hear them on at home. How does the viewer at home not hear what is being said to the van downstairs? Their microphones are connected to a box and that box links them with the van downstairs. On that box are quite a few buttons and one of them is a talk back button which allows them to chat to the van by pressing and holding the button down which cuts the mic and stops it going to air and re-directs it to the van instead. Neil happened to deliver a good couple of sentences on the talk back to the van instead of to air which generally gets us in stitches because they now have to recover and recompose themselves and start all over again. Neil made it even funnier because he tried to make out as if he meant to do that which makes it even funnier because we all know he never  meant to.

Some crazy things can happen when you have to stay in a hotel for long enough. I got woken up at 2am by my next door neighbour having, as Andrew put it, Sexy Times! Man I was glad when it was over and could finally go back to sleep. Ah well I suppose that can be expected to happen at some time in one’s life.

Monday is the final day of the first test match in Zimbabwe since ages ago and it looks like they are going to beat bangers and mash. And not because Bangers are really weak but because Zim had really good strategies in place from day one, and it showed. Every day of the test match was pretty exciting and I think there are really good times ahead for Zimbabwe cricket.

Check THIS short clip for play of the week.

Pete our statistician sitting in the OB van and going through some notes with Felix our graphics operator.

Good Times!

Kepler had another class comment yesterday. He reckons Neil should be on ritalin because he can’t keep to one topic while commentating. I tend to disagree and think he has done a fantastic job as have every single one of our crew!

 Dean du Plessis, better known as Dean two plus three, the only blind commentator I know is also pulling a ‘blinder’. He is just amazing. For anyone wondering what I’m on about just watch some of the cricket when he is commentating and you’ll see why. He gets very little prompting from anyone regarding what’s happening on air. It’s just so uncanny!

Pete, our statistics guy, got left behind at the hotel this fine Sunday morning. That’s what happens on a production if you don’t make the 8 o’clock call time. So he’ll have to spend some of his own money to get to the ground.

Our master record machine died towards the end of the day just as we were changing tapes. We missed the last Bangladesh wicket which is a big bummer but not much we could do about it at the time. It’s one of those things I’m afraid. The engineers worked quickly during tea time to get the stuck tape out and the deck working for the remainder of the day. We requested a new deck for this morning but in true Zimbabwe tradition the new deck wasn’t here by morning but will be here later were told. This to me is a sign that tape should quietly go away and that we should look to solid state recorders.

Graphics struggled again yesterday with the outstats of the Bangladesh batsmen. It is really difficult when you don’t work with those teams often and were all hoping that they’ll get it right soon. Maybe they should study the team photos a little more? If Dean two plus three can get it right and he’s completely blind then what excuse could the graphics guys possibly have?

Andrew guarding his camera position.

Oscar looking on as some of the crew fill their down time before the long cricket day begins.

Incredible Zimbabwe!

What a great day for Zimbabwe cricket.

They came out this morning and put a few more runs on the board. The tail fell away quite quickly though and they ended up 370 all out.

We had the match officials here in the OB van inspecting Raymond Price’s wicket. They wanted to see the real time version, the one you see at home, as well as any other angles which we had just to check that the decision made on-field was the correct one.  After some brief deliberation the decision was made. It’s great to see this sort of thing and the main motivation for the visit to the OB van is to improve the on-field umpire decision making process. This I think we can all agree on is a good thing for everybody. The decision by the match referee was that the on-field umpire had made the correct decision. A great example of using technology to improve cricketing standards.

Bangers and mash came out to bat and Mr. Vitori lived up to some of his hype and took two great wickets, quickity quick. In general Zimbabwe really look like they are on the up and up, in all sorts of ways.

Oh well, another long day in the field for both the OB crew and the cricketers. There is a lot of talk amongst the crew regarding the scandal that has broken at Cricket South Africa. Something about 68 million rand. We'll have to see what washes out there.

A few of us are off to play squash again this evening and we'll be going to bed dreaming of bangers getting smashed by tea time tomorrow. Hopefully this match will finish in three days and give us some time off.

The commentary area in its finished state.

Phillip, our satellite guy in his environment. He’s glad to have made it through the border.

Line of the Dead

Well, well, well. We’ve been here three days now.

Some house keeping. For those that don't know, you can click on any image and it will take you to the high resolution version.

Day one was a travel day and day two we did some rigging. I say some because a lot of the equipment was not here yet! Eish, talk about cutting things fine! Cameras went up at their positions and some testing was done with them. The EVS that I am supposed to be working on is broken and its replacement is on the way from South Africa. This is going to make fitting the new EVS a real pain cause now I have to stay back till late this Wednesday evening, the evening right before we are due to start the first test match. The new EVS needs to be wired in and all logo’s and stings that we need for the show have to be captured.

A couple of us ended up watching the Zimbabwe team practice in the nets. Brian Vitori looks to be one heck of a left arm bowler. Muscle bound and really quick, he looks really mean! The Bangladeshis’ would do well to study THIS video and analyze his action for any clues as to how to face the man. The local newspaper here in Harare had him listed in their team sheet as Brain Vitori. Maybe they know something we don’t? More on the content of these local newspapers in good time.

Zimbabwe is confident of winning this, their first test match back since their exclusion in 2006. We’re all secretly hoping it will happen in three days. Go the Zimbos!

We capped day two off with a crew cricket match on the Harare cricket ground outfield. This sort of thing is really great for crew moral and helps to bond the crew. That’s important because on tours like this you tend to get in each other’s space all the time while under pressure to perform. Over time, tolerance levels are drastically eroded and a good temperament is a prerequisite.

Phillip our satellite operator finally arrived today, Wednesday the 3^rd and rigged his satellite through lunch. Just as well cause there wasn’t enough chow for everyone. Six people missed out on food due to the caterers running out before everyone had been served. Unbelievable!

Carina really doubted my headline in my first post, Zimbabwe Cricket Test Trials and Tribulations. She reckoned that statement was a bit premature as we hadn’t even left South Africa yet. Well, it’s living up to its name now, for sure! At least the OB van hasn’t caught fire, yet.

A fine story from our director during a tour here from 2009 goes something like this.

Due to the shortages in Zimbabwe it was illegal to sell red meat in restaurants and the stuff was even rationed at the butchery. Lo and the OB guys asked about ordering T-bone steaks at this restaurant  and the waitress said they had T-Bone steak but that she could only bring them ’chicken’. All confused the guys looked at each other and eventually when the meal arrived the ‘chicken’, code for T-bone, was completely covered in lettuce to hide it from prying eyes. This all after Lo and the boys won a foot race to get into the restaurant in the first place!

Chatter was nonstop on the bus from the airport to the hotel when we first got here. One of the stories to come out was about a certain retired world renowned blond Australian spin bowler dating a rather world renowned actress, Liz. The interesting thing for me though was that he was using about as much Botox as Liz was!

More good times tomorrow, call time is on site at 07H30 for day one of the first test match. Should be really interesting!

The uplink van in the foreground with its majestic satellite dish next to it beams the images we produce into outer space. Satellites in low orbit bounce these signals back down to earth where broadcasters receive and distribute them to the relevant channels.

Our ‘trusty’ outside broadcast van.

Electricians wiring in a third phase of electricity. This is very late in the evening!

Hurry up and wait.

Shame, poor Z. Athar’s plane only arrived in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and who was there to pick him up? Z of course. What a champion.

Lo our director also flew in late Monday night.

We were smssing Phillip who is the satellite uplink guy and he wasn’t even sure if they were going to get through the border in time before the start of the match on Thursday. As of 3 o’clock Tuesday arvo they were still on the South African side! Who is Andrew going to play golf with?

The other rather sad thing is that people still have very regular electricity cuts leaving the lights off, more than on.

Here are a couple of class stories from our bus journey from the airport to the hotel.

During the first IPL cricket in India a certain production manager who was based in Hyderabad ordered pizzas at lunch time for the crew. The production crew had also just flown in that day to make sure that all was good at the ground. They then left for the hotel leaving the rest of the crew to finish the rig and wait for lunch. And wait they did. Said production manager called pizza parlour to find out where the delivery was and the pizza parlour said the guy was outside waiting at gate 5. Production manager replied that they were also waiting at gate 5 but couldn’t see him anywhere. And so it went, back and forth. Eventually the pizza parlour, out of frustration, blurted out that their guy was at gate 5 at Eden Gardens, Kolcuta. Production manager replies, “Oh s*%, were in Hyderabad.”

One of South Africa’s ex wicket keepers was on a commentary stint the one day. Now when a bowler gets to the top of his run up the PA (production assistant) generally lets everyone know over the comms so that we all know he is about to start his run up. So every time she would say mark as the bowler got to the top of his run up this ex wicket keeper would start looking around wondering why she was calling him every time the bowler got back up to his run up!   

Couple more bus stories tomorrow, for sure!

Athar was definitely not picked up in this stretch Hummer limousine. Can you believe it costs USD 1500,00. to hire this baby per day over the week-end and a measly USD1300,00. per day during the week!

Trevor once quoted a classic. What do you call three cameramen in a line? A whinge tunnel!

Meeting with the grounds man.

These are the cables that get run out, by hand, to each and every camera. Those cables bring the pictures back to the OB van.

A great overview of the Harare cricket ground.

The hallowed pitch getting its due treatment.

This is the commentary area. It’s not quite finished so check back to see the finished product.

How else do you think those amazing graphics get player pictures on them?

Each camera part is in a box. Each box has to be carried to every individual camera position. Sometimes there are over twenty cameras!

The rather pensive blogger.

Adam, on the right with headsets, and some of the crew chilling out after a long rig day.