The other annoyance of living abroad (beside the UK estate agents, that is) is that the BBC don't have internet broadcasting rights for many international sporting events - especially cricket and also football, although I don't care so much about the latter. Of course they don't have TV rights at all for many events these days, but their radio commentary for the cricket is good.
So I was disappointed, but not hugely surprised, to find this morning that the BBC Ashes commentary was not available. ABC (Australia) are also doing some web-casts but apparently Japan is outside their remit.
I'd tried half-heartedly to find ways of evading the BBC block (which presumably works out the location of the IP address from which the requests were coming) without success. But this time I was a bit more determined, as the Ashes is a long series and the commentary is at a convenient time of day (on holidays, which today is, for those who were wondering). So, after a bit of googling, I found myself a public proxy server in the UK...and the second one I tried, works! Desperate cricket-deprived ex-pats around the world should be able to replicate my success without too much difficulty. I guess I'm breaking some obscure law about computer use and will face a lengthy spell in Gitmo next time I venture across the pond (actually, before the flames start flooding in, I'm pretty sure that the proxy in question is set up deliberately to allow untraceable surfing by the general public).
Mind you, I'm not sure that I want to listen to the current slaughter...
Update
No sooner had I posted this than the proxy stopped working (blocked by the BBC, I mean). Bah humbug. ABC is working now though, which is better than nothing, but I'd prefer Test Match Special. I guess it will probably be a game of cat and mouse over the coming months...
So I was disappointed, but not hugely surprised, to find this morning that the BBC Ashes commentary was not available. ABC (Australia) are also doing some web-casts but apparently Japan is outside their remit.
I'd tried half-heartedly to find ways of evading the BBC block (which presumably works out the location of the IP address from which the requests were coming) without success. But this time I was a bit more determined, as the Ashes is a long series and the commentary is at a convenient time of day (on holidays, which today is, for those who were wondering). So, after a bit of googling, I found myself a public proxy server in the UK...and the second one I tried, works! Desperate cricket-deprived ex-pats around the world should be able to replicate my success without too much difficulty. I guess I'm breaking some obscure law about computer use and will face a lengthy spell in Gitmo next time I venture across the pond (actually, before the flames start flooding in, I'm pretty sure that the proxy in question is set up deliberately to allow untraceable surfing by the general public).
Mind you, I'm not sure that I want to listen to the current slaughter...
Update
No sooner had I posted this than the proxy stopped working (blocked by the BBC, I mean). Bah humbug. ABC is working now though, which is better than nothing, but I'd prefer Test Match Special. I guess it will probably be a game of cat and mouse over the coming months...
9 comments:
If you like, I'd be perfectly happy to email you every fall of English wicket or additional Australian half-century (Assuming we actually have to bat again).
A live audio stream is no problem, but I'm not sure my inbox could handle that much traffic :-)
Actually, I'd just like to remind you that I'm Scottish :-)
Do the little kingdoms have their own cricket teams, or has the cricket association mixed up English and British? I was under the impression that much of the current team was welsh (or South African).
"England" is officially England and Wales in cricket terms, however any UK or Irish nationals can qualify for selection by either being born in E&W or by living there for the past 4 years, so eminent Scots (who tend to play in the E&W county teams and hence reside there) can potentially play - and indeed one (Mike Deness) captained the team a few decades back. There is of course no such thing as "English" nationality in terms of an official status.
I guess that means that the "South African" etc team members must have taken UK citizenship.
There is also a Scottish team, which plays in various international matches (non-Test status) and also against English county teams in some competitions. At least in the latter, they can field an overseas player, just like the counties.
Firstly:
In case you lost your feed:
Fintoff. Caught Gilchrist, bowled Lee, third ball duck.
Secondly:
Is county cricket like state cricket here, but with better pay checks and foreign players? I know that several Australians play over there, but the only foreigner I know of who played state cricket here was Andy Flowers, after getting exiled from Zimbabwe after the world cup.
My scorecard reads:
Pieterson, leg before open space.
Flintoff, "caught" off a no ball.
:-)
Yes, it seems that the English counties are popular with foreign cricketers - regulations limit them to 1 per team, I think. There is regular wailing and gnashing of teeth about how the imports keep local players out of the teams...
Has anyone ever tried to quantify what effect global warming would have on cricket? For example, it shouldn't be too hard to calculate how much faster a pitch would crack with 2 degrees or warming and a 25% rainfall reduction.
It may be difficult to convince India to reduce emissions using economic arguments, but if you can demonstrate that global warming would give Australian and Pakistani seamers an advantage, then they might come on board...
That's an interesting idea...I might have to look into it. Forget ecosystem destruction and coastal flooding, disrupting the cricket season would be truly disastrous :-)
Another UK commentary that you can listen to from abroad is here: http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/2006/11/cricket.html
Not as good as tms, but better than nothing.
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