Radio, world over, still has its charm

At the World Cup final, Sanjay Banerjee and Prakash Wakankar will find themselves in the Akashwani commentary box doing non-stop radio commentary for 100 overs. Theirs will be the combined English-Hindi feed going out to those who can't watch the CWC final on a screen, their numbers also in millions, outside the attention of the TV suits.

- Sharda Ugra

Banerjee and Wakankar almost eight decades in the business between them, have witnessed Indian radio commentary shriveling into insignificance, TV taking over public attention and mindspace. On finals day, they will pull through commentary, like true pros; doffing hats in tribute to their great predecessor AFS Talyarkhan who often commentated solo through a day's cricket without a break.

In between innings, Banerjee-Wakankar could also bump into BBC's Test Match Special (TMS) crew, who are going through what their game-changing producer Adam Mountford calls, "a renaissance, a bit of a golden period" for cricket on UK radio. Last year, TMS produced record figures for the men's and women's Ashes, in one instance the second-highest audience ever for Radio5 Sports Extra.

Cricket on television in UK has gone off free to air and given TMS a chance to reach out to the audience shut out from expensive cable costs. Over the last 15 years, TMS, the first broadcasters of live cricket commentary in 1957 have been on the frontline of substantial changes in sports broadcasting. Mountford took over as TMS producer in 2007 and its commentary box opened up to diverse, younger voices, including the introduction of women commentators, summarisers, experts.

TMS commentator Henry Moeran says BBC cricket has transformed the landscape of broadcasting in terms of the range of voices it includes, "now actually it's unusual to find any broadcast in the world game that doesn't include the female voice." TMS has also understood Moeran says, "that a radio programme doesn't work purely in a linear way."