Adam Mountford: “I really hope we are not seeing the death of test cricket”

Enthralled, passionate and one of our own. All these apply to Adam Mountford, producer of the generation-spanning Test Match Special programme on Radio Four. A man who in his own words “became obsessed” with cricket at the age of nine following the Ashes series of ’81, a series which later became known as Botham’s Ashes.

I was fortunate enough to be invited along to RAW’s event during which Mountford recounted the way in which his passion for sport realised itself into a career in broadcasting, following an ad in this very student paper. That ad, for the then W963 (now RAW) first introduced Adam to the world of radio broadcasting. He later went on to work in local radio stations in Coventry before moving to BBC Five Live and ultimately where he is now, as the producer of TMS. Adam is one of the many alumni of student radio here at Warwick, but what makes him stand out amongst a list of names including David Davis, Stephen Merchant and Simon Mayo is his unquenchable passion for sport, and in particular, cricket.

Adam recounted at length stories of his time on the programme, many of which included a certain Geoffrey Boycott – from the time the team wound up Geoffrey about his 100^th ton, to the moment he thought Alice Cooper was a woman. Adam passionately told these stories, such as the time he had to deliver a broadcast camped outside the cricket ground in Gaulle Sri Lanka, or when big hitters of the “real world” such as Theresa May, Russell Crowe and Malala Yousafzai each decided to enter “the box” during his time at TMS, with unrelenting enthusiasm. This is clearly a man with a passion, both for radio, and for cricket. This was no ordinary radio producer, after all, no man who can “still remember the scorecards and averages from the series in ‘81” is.

His passion for the game aside, Adam Mountford had a number of interesting opinions on the apparent plight of the game, in particular, the test format. He notes than in our ever changing world, “people’s attention spans are now different”, they want the “wham bam entertainment” of T20 cricket but Adam feels this is a waste. On test cricket, “the game evolves over hours and days, with lots of twists and turns, you don’t get that with a format that ends in three hours [T20]”and he still feels that for this reason test cricket can capture the imagination like no other format – “I can remember very few T20 matches, but I can remember a lot of test matches”.

“I really hope we are not seeing the death of test cricket”

Adam touched on some positives for the test game in the future such as the popularity of recent day-night and four day tests as well as some of the most highly rated T20 players, such as Jofra Archer, wanting to eventually play test matches. However this section of the interview ended poignantly, the words “I really hope we are not seeing the death of test cricket”, a sign that despite the success of new advancements to the test format, its demise is still a concern for Adam and many others involved with the game.

For many cricket fans, the recent plight of the West Indies test team strikes a particularly raw nerve. From the four-man fast bowling attack of Holding, Marshall, Garner and Croft in the 70s and 80s, to the hulking fast bowlers Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh who made waves in the 90s, West Indian Bowlers have always put the fear in their opposition. They had some pretty good batsmen too, Gary Sobers, Viv Richards and Brian Lara to name a few. Adam seemed to share this concern, labelling their recent exploits a “tragedy”, “the West Indies are trying to qualify for the world cup and half of the players aren’t part of the team”.

But for Adam this is all part of a bigger problem in the world of sports consumption, “we shouldn’t be too obsessed with the ashes, the last series was a stinker” he says, “why aren’t we doing more to promote those series [India and Pakistan in the UK] instead of just focusing on the ashes?”  Here Adam raises a serious point, with home tests against both Pakistan and India (the current no.1 world ranked test side) coming up in 2018, those should be our primary focus, not an Ashes series in 2019. He even went on to add that “there hasn’t been a decent Ashes test match since Trent Bridge in 09” and that he saw more compelling action watching two days of the India vs South Africa test match than he has seen in an Ashes test in a long time.

But do not despair dear reader, there are also many positives, diversity and a new type of audience being two of them, “when England went into a test match last winter with four british Asians in the team, it was an amazing moment.” This seems very important to Adam personally, as he recounts from his own personal experience, “all these people are serving as role models, I remember when I first began broadcasting, I went to comprehensive school, everyone else had gone to public schools, it was intimidating”.

“Not only was it an amazing match, but the occasion seemed to transcend cricket”

Diversity aside, what Adam seemed most happy about was the success of women’s cricket, when I asked what his favourite moment as a TMS producer was he answered, “England winning the Women’s World Cup, you got the sense that there was a new audience, not only was it an amazing match, but the occasion seemed to transcend cricket”. My experience with Adam showed me one thing if nothing else, that there is still a passion for the game, there is still a new and emerging audience, and the women’s game, the inclusion of more female and POC commentators and role models forms a major part of that.

In sum perhaps we should consider the “death of test cricket” not as a death but more as a rebirth. The format has given us all so many memories but perhaps it must subside in order for fresher formats and faces to flourish and facilitate a new generation of passionate viewers and listeners.