England fans were briefly spared having to watch their side struggle on the fourth morning of the first Ashes Test by a global outage of television pictures from the Gabba.
A power issue inside the broadcast compound in Brisbane meant the world feed was lost for around 30 minutes, leaving anyone who was not inside the ground unable to see the action.
The problems affected BT Sport, who are live rights holders in the UK, and Test Match Special, whose first Test coverage is being done from TV pictures by teams in Sydney and London.
It also meant the decision review system was not in operation, the latest technological issue to hit the first Test, which has not had ‘Snicko’ in operation because local Covid restrictions do not allow for an engineer to enter the state of Queensland in time to fix it.
For a while, the only TV coverage came from a single camera at the boundary edge, giving an angle from third man or long-on, depending on which end the bowling was coming from.
“We’re seeing cricket from a very, very different angle – it’s like when you go and watch cricket in the crowd,” former England captain Alastair Cook told BT Sport viewers.
“You don’t realise how fast the ball is.”
Unfortunately for England supporters, pictures were only lost after they had lost three wickets for 11 runs in the first hour, then returned just in time for Ben Stokes to be dismissed.
Readers of the BBC Sport live text could at least see the silver lining…
Richard Twydell: Can’t see England losing this Test!
Jack Jarvis: England haven’t lost a wicket in this new single-camera era. I’m a fan.
Karl: If we lose a wicket now and nobody saw it, did it even happen?
And our very own Matthew Henry, who was writing the live text blog for the BBC Sport website, added: “I’ve woken up in cold sweats after having nightmares of this moment.”
But the pictures did return, just in time for Stokes to fall as England stumbled towards a chastening defeat 24 hours after their spirited fightback at the Gabba.
