After having watched cricket back home on television for so long, I had noticed how much was I missing when its telecast without any advertisements. It cant get better than watching it live on sky sports. Well there are commercial breaks in between, but occasionally (say once after 10 overs) , and not so frequent as we have in India. And they do not eat up the first and last balls of the crucial overs.
How else could I have noticed the mannerisms of VVS during the recent tour to Australia. The way he strokes the crease number of times after the over is complete before going to talk to the batsman on the other end, can only be seen when you are watching the sport completely without any interruption especially between overs.
I noticed another such mannerism in Morne Morkel during their recent series. While starting his run-up Morne would first walk towards the straight boundary a few steps before starting to turn around and run for his runup. Quite peculiar and easy to miss.
I might have seen them while viewing them on ESPN/Neo in India as well, but that is not the point. The joy of watching a sports to me is to follow it completely between and after overs. I love it when the camera keeps following a batsman or a bowler covering his every move during that between-over break. Its part of the game, and I think its a shame we have to put advertisements during that period. Not that we have not got enough of them all across the screen during an over.
