Read on Twitter
As we are all waiting, shall I tell the story of me watching the experimental attempt of Norwegian television covering a cricket match in 2004?
It might have been a response to slowly increasing immigration from Asian countries, or just a general attempt at giving a sport completely unknown to Norwegians an outing.
1/
1/
The match selection was seemingly quite random. It was a West Indies - New Zealand match bang in the middle of the NatWest series. Must have been this match:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/natwest-series-2004-61151/new-zealand-vs-west-indies-6th-match-66307/full-scorecard
2/
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/natwest-series-2004-61151/new-zealand-vs-west-indies-6th-match-66307/full-scorecard
2/
As such, Norwegians should be almost ideally suited to being cricket audiences. They have patience galore.
I witnessed students packed into a small TV room on campus in Trondheim watching a 50k cross country race for four hours straight.
3/
I witnessed students packed into a small TV room on campus in Trondheim watching a 50k cross country race for four hours straight.
3/
They would be cheering intensely for some Norwegian taking 6th place some 3.4 seconds ahead of some Swede at the 12k check point.
Which is a reasonable equivalent for applauding a convincing leave.
4/
Which is a reasonable equivalent for applauding a convincing leave.
4/
So they reserved seven hours or so for the coverage, starting some 15 minutes before Windies took the field.
I got the distinct feeling that neither commentator had ever witnessed cricket themselves. they had read up on it.
5/
I got the distinct feeling that neither commentator had ever witnessed cricket themselves. they had read up on it.
5/
I also had the feeling that I was among a few hundred in the entire country watching it. Perhaps dozens sticking with it for the duration.
6/
6/
They didn't know any of the players. Rarely will Brian Lara's competence with the bat have been more of a surprise to commentators.
7/
7/
They also didn't know what a good score is. The Windies collapse from 180/3 to 216 all out in the space of ten overs mainly stressed them, because there was suddenly too much happening from them to process and report.
8/
8/
I distinctly remember them being quite thrilled by witnessing their first ever run-out. It somehow made more sense to them than a wicket.
9/
9/
"Det er ute. Det er en "rønn-out". would have been roughly their description.
At the halfway stage, they had no idea what to make of 216 runs. Seemed to sound like a lot to them.
10/
At the halfway stage, they had no idea what to make of 216 runs. Seemed to sound like a lot to them.
10/
The beauty was seeing them growing into their job and increasingly understanding their subject of reporting.
11/
11/
I had a very similar experience when watching the 2006 or so Winter Olympics on the BBC and following a commentator through the Biathlon competitions. His first race was indeed his first ever, and he did not have a clue.
12/
12/
When at the first time check an athlete was clocked 4 seconds behind the one who had started before him, i.e. 30 seconds earlier, he thought the second one had made up 26 seconds, and then wondered how he lost that again when coming to the stadium.
13/
13/
By the last race of the competition, he had fully learned how the sport worked and knew how to commentate. We loved that and totally cheered him on, because it was witnessing learning in real time.
14/
14/
Back to the 2004 cricket on Norwegian TV: the match wasn't a thriller, New Zealand were calmly moving towards the target without losing too many wickets.
15/
15/
The problem was time. They had allocated exactly until 6pm, and at about 5:50 a wicket fell, leaving NZ needing another 40 or so with 6 wickets in hand. Not a stiff target but with Lawson and Bravo bowling not entirely without interest.
16/
16/
Anyway, Norwegian television thought: we have shown you quite a few hours of this weird sport now. You are welcome. But we are leaving this now, for the early evening programming.
17/
17/
They just cut out.
Incredibly, the commentators did not see any problem with just stopping there.
And never during the evening, even in the sports part of their news did they feel the need to report the result.
18/
Incredibly, the commentators did not see any problem with just stopping there.
And never during the evening, even in the sports part of their news did they feel the need to report the result.
18/
It was like building up tension for 7 hours (admittedly not a lot, but still) and then just deciding: nah, forget about it.
I felt let down, and quite alone in it, because I was pretty sure that virtually no one else had actually bothered to watch this.
19/
I felt let down, and quite alone in it, because I was pretty sure that virtually no one else had actually bothered to watch this.
19/
It must have been a really weird experience for those accidentally tuning into that channel and witnessing some unknown sport for unknown reasons for a few minutes, without an ending, before going to the normal programming.
20/
20/
