Test Match Special - Your questions answered

Peter Baxter has been the producer of TMS for 27 years.

Peter has co-ordinated the BBC's cricket coverage from every one of the Test-playing nations, with the exception of Bangladesh.

He joins Sport Online to answer your questions.

Ray Butler, UK: When did your love of cricket begin and how good a player were you?

Peter Baxter: I first used to watch my father play for his regiment in Cyprus when I was very young, but I suppose that a love of the game started when I was about nine or ten. Then I was a reasonably good leg-spinner, but lost it as soon as schoolmasters tried to coach me.

I was only a moderate to poor very medium paced bowler after that at school and afterwards in a wandering club side that caused more mayhem in pub bars than on the field.

---

Luke Hahn, England: How hard is it to become a cricket commentator if you are not a former player?

Henry Blofeld, Chris Martin-Jenkins and Jonathan Agnew

Peter Baxter: I prefer not to use first class cricketers as ball-by-ball commentators (as opposed to expert summarisers) because that relationship is of the layman representing the listener when he asks the question.

Obviously Jonathan Agnew is an exception to that and I lay no hard and fast rule on the arrangement.

I expect that the ball-by-ball men - and women - are more likely to come out of journalism and broadcasting, but there will always be exceptions. As always the key is to be in the right place at the right time.

---

Keith, England: Do you agree with the suggestion (made during a recent TMS) that the limit on bowlers' overs in one-day games should be scrapped?

Peter Baxter: I think on the whole that some sort of restriction on bowlers' overs is essential in what is anyway a somewhat artificial form of the game. If they were not restricted there could be some very unbalanced sides around.

---

Mary Lund, UK: How did the cake tradition start on TMS and which commentator has/had the sweetest tooth?

The late Brian Johnston

Peter Baxter:I can't remember our first TMS cake, but one or two arrived and Brian Johnston, being a well brought-up fellow, thanked the sender. That encouraged more people to send cakes and so the tradition grew. We had then to watch for cakes from commercial sources looking for a plug.

I suppose Johnners was the sweetest tooth, though old Alan McGilvray was never backward in looking for a slice, which sometimes proved his downfall when Johnners threw him a question when his mouth was full. Crumbs everywhere.

---

Ian Sowman, UK: Unfortunately you do not have live rights to the series this winter, so what format will you be adopting for the coverage - will it be along similar lines to last year? Who will present the show?

Peter Baxter: We do not have the rights for Pakistan. Sri Lanka is unresolved so far. We are proposing a 'Test Match Special Report' programme, as we did in South Africa last winter. The details still have to be discussed with Radio 4.

---

Damien Cahill, N Ireland: Which venues have the best and worst conditions to broadcast from, both from a technical and commentary viewpoint?

The Lord's Media Centre

Peter Baxter:What we need in a commentary box is enough space to move around and a position in which we are not so remote that we cannot feel the atmosphere.

Some of the newer boxes are rather like that - Brisbane on the last tour for instance - behind solid glass high under the roof at the back of the stand - though the box itself was fine.

Sometimes the makeshift arrangements on a rooftop, perhaps, in India or Pakistan are better than the more established ones like the really poisonous room we had for the opening match of the 1996 World Cup in Ahmedabad.

We were all very fond of the old commentary box in the Pavilion at Lord's - as opposed to the very adequate one in the new Media Centre. I suppose Trent Bridge is now the best in England, but I think in recent years the box we had in Guyana in 1998 would be my first choice. A long way to go.

---

Peter Labrum, Leeds: How many different entries in his various books does the 'bearded wonder' have to make after each ball has been bowled?

The 'Bearded Wonder': Statistician Bill Frindall

Peter Baxter: If it's a dot ball - just one. There is just one space for a particular bowler bowling to a particular batsman in one over.

If a run is scored he will put an extra number over the number of runs scored which is his code for the direction of the shot. At the end of the over he has the totals columns on one side of his sheet to do.

There are three sheets. The working one which the commentators do not need to see. The bowling figures brought up to date at the end of each over, which they do, and the basic scorecard of the innings which is in front of them all the time and updated at the fall of each wicket with extra information like the number of balls faced, boundaries hit, minutes batted, over out and a note on the dismissal like "missed a straight one".

---

Judith Wilson, Dorset: What has been your favourite 'Champagne Moment'?

Peter Baxter: I have seen three Test hat-tricks and each of them has been a worthy Champagne Moment. However, I think I'd go for Ramprakash's first Test wicket - to a stunning catch by Phil Tufnell at square leg. We gave a bottle to each of them.

---

Martin Makin, Brighton: One of my most memorable moments from TMS was the Botham legover incident when Johnners and Aggers descended into a fit of giggles in the box. Is it true that you reprimanded the pair for unprofessionalism?

Peter Baxter: I did not reprimand them for unprofessionalism, but Johnners and I left the Oval that night with our heads in our hands at what we thought had been a shambles - and it was. But we were from the old school.

---

Miles Thomas, Utrecht, Holland: During the past two years, there have been some incredible Test matches. During your long stint as producer of TMS, what has been the most exciting game you have ever covered?

Ian Botham: England's hero at Headingley in 1981

Peter Baxter: The recent Lord's Test would have to be in the top group. The other two that I would put alongside it for exciting finishes would be Headingley 1981 (of course) and Melbourne 1982 (when England won by 3 runs).

But another, less often talked about, would be Delhi 1984/5 when the match had seemed to be consigned to a draw and England's spinners (Edmonds and Pocock) and then some enterprising batting - all on the last day - got them back into a series which they eventually won against the odds.

---

David Hill, UK: Jonathan Agnew's absences from commentary on TMS are becoming more and more regular. As he is the BBC's cricket correspondent, why is he allowed to take these breaks during the domestic season?

Peter Baxter: Jonathan Agnew has not missed an England Test Match since the two in Zimbabwe in 1996/7. We do try to move things around a bit more for one-day internationals.

---

John Leighton, UK: Who, in your opinion, has been the most interesting guest on View from the Boundary?

Peter Baxter: Still the most interesting guest taking a 'View' was the man who gave me the inspiration for the series - Ben Travers. He had an incredible memory of matches eighty years before without reference to a book or scorecard.

The funniest, though, had to be Michael Bentine. Sadly both are now departed.