A little like Ken Barlow from Coronation Street or Nigel Roberts on election night, the Channel Nine cricket commentators just seem to have always been there. From the heady beige days to now we have been treated to Richie, Bill, Ian, Tony and their various friends. A wealth of cricketing experience mixed with lashings of extreme patriotism and buckets of hyperbole, they have marked the modern era of cricket. They even spawned their own genre of comedy.

So much has happened on their watch. Coloured clothing, the 30m circle, hot spot/snicko, the near death and extraordinary resuscitation of test cricket, the arrival of 20:20. As Bill Lawry would say, “its all happening”, and it has been for 30 years.

My favourite times were usually when Bill just lost the plot entirely. ” Share Warne’s a legend. He’s a Victorian, I’m a Victorian.” Or when Tony Greig just did not know who to support if England, South Africa or Australia were playing, and instead resorted to not so subtle put downs regarding the other team.

But is it nearly all over? The ugly demise of Australia as a cricketing powerhouse has nearly reached its apex. The fifth test in Sydney will be Ricky Ponting’s last, and the link to the Australia powerhouse team of the 90s and 00s will be over. They will be just like the rest of us. Only still better than us.

So, what of the commentary team? While various attempts have been made to spruce the team up with the arrival of the extra-aggravating Mark Nicholas, Irritating Ian Healy and Tubs Taylor, the core of the team have stuck through. Richie Benaud, showing the good grace and judgement he has always had, has at least announced a retirement. Surely the time has now come for Chappelli, Greigy, Bill and his pigeons to shuffle off.

Apart from anything else their vacuous boosterism of the Australian team has got little basis to cling to any more. I am sure they are told by Channel Nine to do it, to try to keep the audience when all hope is gone. But the wall to wall coverage of cricket in Australia won’t survive a dramatic form slump like this. It will take time to re-build Australian cricket, and in the modern broadcasting era time is as rare a commodity as Bill and Tony agreeing.

So, if this Ashes series is the end for the Channel Nine team as we know it, I have to say I will miss you guys. Richie told it like it was during the underarm incident, and for that he is a hero. The rest of you annoy me so much some times I turn you off, but to be honest you taught me more about cricket than I ever knew. Cheers fellas.