Australian Crickets “Voice” leaves to a standing ovation
The Sydney Cricket Ground stood up in unison. The year was 1985, the Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke was on hand to make a speech. It was a special occasion, one which warranted a standing ovation and probably a collective doffing of hats. The only change from the usual was…it was not for any cricketer legend….
The most famous Australian voice of the game, Alan McGilvray was bidding adieu to the commentary box after a stunning 50-year career.
In a long career by any stretch of the imagination, McGilvray had endeared himself to radio listeners for bringing alive the action on the field in a no nonsense style. He was a student of the game and its subtleties. He covered almost every Australian test match since he began his journey in 1935. More than 200 matches as a commentator is an unparalleled feat and the game was well served by McGilvray.
Alan McGilvray played and captained NSW in the 1930’s. He had a relatively non-descript career as a cricketer, with about 20 wickets and a few half-centuries to show for statistics. His love for the game meant that in 1935 he was called upon to summarise the end-of-play scores in Sheffield Shield matches. It was natural to then be invited in 1938 as a commentator, when the ingenious Australian Broadcasting Corporation, tried what turned out to be a brilliant way of broadcasting cricket from across the seas. The 1938 Ashes in England was the testing ground for their groundbreaking experiment.
In the 1930’s, shortwave radio wasn’t in commercial use. Marconi, the pioneer of anything radio and transmittable was at the peak of his inventive abilities. Longwave and medium wave were the initial choices, but being restricted in the quality and the distance they could carry transmission, they remained local in application. The love of the game prompted the Australian Broadcast Corporation to find a way to bring the matches in England live to Australian Radio.
Australian Cricket brings synthetic cricket commentary
The ABC termed their experiment as synthetic cricket commentary. Looking back, almost 100 years later, it might sound a bit archaic, but was surely revolutionary. It involved a team of people sitting in the stadium in England, and sending intercontinental cables with bare details at the end of every over. Dot balls were ignored and those on which runs were scored or wickets fell were included. The cables were passed on to a set of commentators hunched over their mikes in Australia. These commentators, surely men of imagination, would then describe the match, in their own imaginative words accompanied by stadium sounds created separately giving the feel of the ground. It was a work of absolute ingenuity and a tribute to the idea of making good of the available means.
McGilvray enjoyed the stint and realised he had found his calling. In his own words, it was a pioneering adventure that left no doubt where my future lay”.
It was the beginning of what turned out to be a career that established him as Australian cricket’s voice. Cricket was enriched by the astute observations and style of narration that McGilvray brought to the millions of listeners.
He made more than ten tours to England covering the Ashes. A stretch that began when he first visited with the Brandman-led invincibles in 1938, a bare few years after the synthetic experiment. England, in those days already had its legends on the mike in the likes of John Arlott and Victor Richardson. Alan with his distinctive style established a name for himself with his knowledge of the game. It was a series covered by the true great raconteurs of cricket.
MacGilvray’s style was in contrast to the eloquent and picturesque narration of Arlott and his predecessors in the BBC Test Match Special teams. He was the serious kind, even when working in the box with the boisterous, and easygoing legends of TMS teams like Brian Johnston, and Christopher Martin Jenkins. He was more of a student of the game. He would provide cricketing details, and filter the game on the ground into small details. He read the game and the conditions to perfection and could separate the game into its fibers and lay it bare.
Alan McGilvray : A narrator par excellence..
I remember listening to a BBC Radio program paying tributes to Alan. It played a snippet that summed up the brilliance of MacGilvray’s understanding of the game. The voice clip had him, covering a Dennis Lillee spell, with Rodney Marsh behind the stumps. McGilvray could be heard, suggesting that given the batsman’s foot movement, Lillee abandoned the middle stump line looking for a nip back and trying an outswinger. A few deliveries later, Lillee goes wide of the crease, swings one away, and gets the edge for Marsh to do the rest. The BBC anchor continued…
Was it caught Marsh bowled Lillee or caught Marsh bowled McGilvray?
In a lifetime of bringing the game through the radio, McGilvray became a part of the Australian cricket fan’s life. He always remained a neutral observer and a brilliant student of the game when covering it. In a marathon innings, he brought alive the nuances of the game for almost two generations of cricket lovers. His countrymen looked upon him with pride and were grateful for the pictures he painted with words.
In what would probably be the greatest tribute to him a radio jingle around his name , exhorting people to listen to ABC’s test cricket coverage was created.
After his retirement, he continued to follow the game. He authored many successful reminiscences: The Game is Not the Same (1985), The Game Goes On (1987), Backpage of Cricket (1989), and The Captains of the Game (1992). McGilvray was appointed MBE in 1974 and became a member of the Order of Australia in 1980, the year that he completed a unique feat of commentating in 100 tests at the SCG. A true Australian cricket Legend was Alan.
McGilvray passed away in 1996, leaving behind for posterity, voice notes, delivered in impressive timber. The game is described in detail, nuances extracted and delivered in his style, punctuated with a masterful pause for the background to filter in.
In the 1981 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, England’s great cricket writer E. W. Swanton, a legend in his own right having covered cricket for BBC for 30 years said.
At any crucial moment of an England-Australia Test, the ideal recipe, for me, is to turn on the television picture, turn off the sound, and listen to Alan.”
The ABC had got it right when they came up with the jingle which went.
“The Game is Not the Same without McGilvray’”
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A side story :
It was the 1938 Trent bridge test, the test that witnessed one of the best test innings. The flamboyant Stan McCabe was demolishing the Englishmen in a whirlwind of an innings. With 8 wickets down McCabe had McCormick as his partner. M
The cable message said MC was out.
McGilvray looked at his colleague Richardson and asked: “Who’ll I give it to?”
Richardson replied..: “Oh, give it to Stan. He’s got his hundred and he’ll be throwing his bat at anything.”
So, MacGilvray’s voice boomed into the households, “McCabe steps into the drive. He’s lofted it … and he’s out. And what a glorious innings it was.” He went the whole hog including the sound effects and the standing ovation.
The next cable announced that it had been McCormick, who was bowled by Doug Wright. It was a genuine error and McGilvray always the gentleman went public to explain the error honestly with profuse apologies.
McCabe to the relief of Australians, went on to score 232, an innings which prompted Don Bradman to call his team to watch it from the dressing room balcony. ( Read more about the McCabe masterpiece here)
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