However, Seymour de Lotbiniere, who was responsible for live sports coverage and who went on to become head of outside broadcasts at the BBC, realised that ball-by-ball commentary could make compelling radio.

[citation needed] Format changes include the addition of daily live weather forecasts and reports on the domestic county championship for home series, plus an end of day summary with Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott.

After Boycott left Test Match Special in 2020, Agnew now conducts the end of day summary alongside Michael Vaughan.

In 2001, Agnew was forced to broadcast by mobile phone from the ramparts of Galle Fort, overlooking the Sri Lankan ground, when the BBC were locked out.

These have included: Adam Collins Tim Lane Geoff Lemon Jim Maxwell Alan McGilvray Ian Chappell ("Chappeli") Stuart Clark Aaron Finch Jack Fingleton Adam Gilchrist Jason Gillespie ("Dizzy") Matthew Hayden Mitchell Johnson Dean Jones Mel Jones Justin Langer Stuart Law Geoff Lawson Damien Martyn Glenn McGrath ("Pigeon") Dirk Nannes Neville Oliver, nicknamed "The Doctor" in reference to his initials and the film Dr. No Michael Slater ("Slats") Jeff Thomson ("Thommo") Roushan Alam Athar Ali Khan Harsha Bhogle Prakash Wakankar Maharajah of Baroda Aakash Chopra Deep Dasgupta Rahul Dravid Farokh Engineer ("Rooky") Sunil Gavaskar Ravi Shastri John Kenny Michael McNamee Alan Lewis Niall O'Brien Bryan Waddle Jeremy Coney Stephen Fleming Iain O'Brien Ian Smith Omar Kureishi Imran Khan Azhar Mahmood Wasim Akram Mushtaq Mohammad Ramiz Raja Waqar Younis John Blain Dougie Brown Gerald de Kock Natalie Germanos Neil Manthorp Daryll Cullinan Firdose Moonda Shaun Pollock Barry Richards Graeme Smith Vernon Philander Roshan Abeysinghe Gamini Goonesena Russel Arnold Tony Cozier Roy Lawrence Fazeer Mohammed Donna Symmonds Sir Curtly Ambrose Carlos Brathwaite Colin Croft Sir Viv Richards Duncan Fletcher Pommie Mbangwa Henry Olonga The TMS team also includes a scorer.

Brian Johnston, who was as happy on the stage and working in light entertainment presentation as he was in the commentary box, was the master of this style.

[13] Other Johnners classics include, "There's Neil Harvey standing at leg-slip with his legs wide apart, waiting for a tickle",[14] and "...and Ward bowls to Glenn Turner, short, ooh!

Brian Johnston was once taken to task by a schoolmistress correspondent, pretending indignation, for saying during a West Indies Test commentary: "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey."

[16] Concern about BBC Sport's commitment to maintaining the tone and style of the programme after its 50th anniversary led to an Early Day Motion being tabled in Parliament by Andrew George MP in June 2007.

[18] In 2019, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall commissioned a cake featuring the helmets and captains from the England vs. New Zealand teams, delivered and consumed during the World Cup Final.

[22] This is a regular Saturday lunchtime feature during home Test matches, in which guests from all walks of life are interviewed about their love of cricket as well as their own sphere of activity.

[23] Daniel Radcliffe was interviewed on his 18th birthday at the Lord's Test in 2007 after being hunted down by Shilpa Patel, TMS's assistant producer.

[24] British prime ministers have been guests, including cricket fans John Major, David Cameron, who was interviewed twice, once as the Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition, Theresa May, and Rishi Sunak.

In addition to View from the Boundary, TMS regularly provides features such as interviews with ex-players or reminiscences of matches and seasons gone by.

In each case, the narrator tells the story interspersed with recorded interviews with the main protagonists as well as pieces of archive commentary.

have tended to be more live with ex-players reuniting to share their memories with new TMS scorer Andy Zaltzman giving some statistical context.

Ray Illingworth made some appearances on the programme during lunchbreaks often taking about past matches together with a synopsis of the state of play currently.

Examples include a personal milestone for a player, such as a century or five-wicket haul, a dramatic celebration, or a spectacular piece of fielding, wicket or shot.

In 2008 Mike Selvey was replaced as a TMS summariser as new producer Adam Mountford brought in Phil Tufnell and Michael Vaughan.

Selvey then criticised what he described as a shift towards "laddish" commentators such as Arlo White and Mark Pougatch who have "little knowledge of the game, especially of the cadences of Test Match cricket".