I love the Fox highlights. When there’s a break in the play or it rains they simply show extended highlights either of the session just gone or of an earlier match. The thing that is so brilliant about it is that they show a lot of nothing happening. There will be deliveries that strike the batsman on the pad and run away down to fine leg allowing the batsmen to take an easy legbye; deliveries that the batsman shoulders arms to, letting the ball go safely through to the keeper; they will show the batsman pushing into the covers, momentarily thinking about running but, well before a threshold of thrilling action could be crossed, calling no and returning to his crease; and they will show at least two slow motion replays of this delivery, from alternate angles. On channel 9 all you ever get is meaningless boundaries and wickets. Fox find the flow of the game and capture it, they provide a sense of the game’s pressure – as it builds, morphs and recedes. Its like watching timelapse footage of a rock weathering. 9s highlights are like watching fireworks on television – the constant explosion of lights with no dynamic sense is boring. Yesterday, as it rained in Mumbai, Fox played the highlights of the 2nd test in Chennai. A match that ended in a rained out draw (9 would never show highlights of a drawn match). The people at fox are aware how exciting this match was, the incredible build up to the enthralling, timeless partnership between Martyn & Gillespie, and the little appendix at the very end with Sehwag smashing Mutterman McGrath for boundaries everywhere – the fireworks and the muttering! A beautifully appropriate salvo paying respect to the test that by all necessity had to remain inconclusive – it could not find any way to finish.

Fox channel has a much finer awareness of inaction and the away-from-the action. Their crowd shots are often filmic, the scoreboard operator so slowly and with dreadful reluctance pulling down the ‘SACHIN’ panel and replacing it into storage. All that 9 ever gives us is chicks in bikinis. BUT 9 IS FREE! (but but what of the cost to the planet?)