Richie, Classic Catches and more: Why Channel 9 was one of its kind

4:53 AM, a cold December morning in north India and despite the confinements of your cosy house, the sub-temperate readings on the Celsius scale discourage even the thought of abandoning the repose of your mink blanket. But off you must be, even though as the city sleeps and the darkness outdoors smears everything in dormancy, you have something to look forward to.

Tiptoeing towards the living room, part shivering and part regretting the day you got enamoured by cricket, you push the power button of the CRT television, back when the curve on the TV screens was more concave than convex, more Arjuna Ranatunga than Virat Kohli. As it turns on, the blinding transition of a flash and the accompanying sound that resembled an ebbing desperate whistle, with the volume adjusted to safe levels, the memorized digits were pressed on the remote subconsciously, and there you went, right on the screen was the classic red outlined letters of ESPN, or the rather minimalist logo of Star Sports, in case you are a younger reader.

And that's when you were redirected to the cricket broadcast from all the way down under, where Channel Nine worked wonders, to revolutionize the experience, to make all the inconvenient shenanigans seem worth their value, to make cricket played in Australia seem a carnival and every day of play an event to look forward to.

Forty years of Nine, encapsulating cricket's greatest moments, the World Series Cricket, the sweat flick of DK Lillee, the magical work of Sachin Tendulkar six thousand odd miles away from his maidans of Bombay, Brett Lee's sensational inswingers under the lights, Brian Lara's scintillating 153 at the SCG that made him name his daughter Sydney, the phenomenon called Adam Gilchrist and a bloke named Mitchell Johnson turning the heat up like never seen before in the '13/14 Ashes, you saw it all on Nine.

But now, like all great things, it must come to an end. There will be more great moments down under, there will be more legends in making, but it will never be the same again. With the Australian cricketing rights given over to Seven Cricket for broadcasting, it truly is the end of an era. In the spirit of the good old times, let us look at what made the Nine experience better than any.

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#4 Daddles the "Duck"

Nine was the first broadcaster to use supporting visuals to enhance the entertainment value of the sport, the very reason they stood out from everyone right from the beginning of their coverage in 1977/78. Among all the graphical quirks they brought to the viewers, there was none better than "Daddles".

The duck that popped on the screen every time a batsman departed without troubling the scorers, it became an instant hit with the viewers and stayed ever since. Absurd yet comical, the blue-capped avian with pads on and a bat in hand would launch off into a smug walk, before the realization hit and it would slump into a heart-broken display of forlorn emotions and a facepalm to mask the shame, the perfect animation to sum up a batsman's state of mind as he walked off the huge Australian outfield with the jeering of the crowd making the walk seem a never-ending expedition of agony all the way to the dressing room.

Over the years, it followed all kinds of cricketers in their walk of shame to the pavilion, not even sparing the likes of Tendulkar, Ponting or Lara.

#3 KFC Classic Catches

Before the T20 franchise leagues found a way to unabashedly earn some greens by plugging in the sponsor names for literally every event imaginable on a cricket field, Nine did it and they kept it elementary, devoid of all embellishment. The KFC Classic Catches was a segment, often shown in between deliveries on a live broadcast of the action, and it was as lucid as its title.

The premise was simple, all catches taken at the ground hosting the match, worthy of note, be it a typical Mark Waugh 'how did he do it?', or the likes of which fast bowlers somehow plucked in the outfield to etch their flukes into timeless veneration, or even David Boon's nonchalant picks diving around at short leg as if he had unbeknownst DLCs to boost his reflexes, were shown as the viewers and commentators with equal enthusiasm alike picked their favourite of the lot. Oh, and did I mention prizes for the viewers?

It was a great jog back to the past to celebrate the rawest and most impulsive of cricketing skills, catching, an aspect of cricket that sees improvement but in its essence invokes the same gasps be it any age.

#2 Channel Nine intro theme

Beginning with the trumpets of the classic Nine WWOS intro that played over the revitalizing montage of action between the two sides who would be taking on each other to kick off the Australian cricketing summer after months and months of baiting the interest and patience with the build-up to the contest, the coverage had so many elements to capture the imagination of even the more partisan young teens over India even on days their country was not in action.

The opening intro, with the constant overlay of trumpets, the ominous drumbeats resembling those of warfare, an indication of how intensely fought cricket in Australia used to be, remained the two persistent units and while the music never changed with time, the accompanying instruments went from sounds of heavy metal in the 1980s to rock guitars in the 1990s and with the evolution of a new millennium altogether, the 2000s saw electric guitars and later strands of EDM built into it to always resonate with the day and age of the broadcast.

To this day, the "Richies" in the Bay 37 of the Sydney Cricket Ground are heard belting out the unfailing Nine intro on their trumpets, a melody that will always reverberate in every cricket tragic's ears.

#1 Commentary

From the ecstatic "Got him!" of the ever-cheerful Bill Lawry, to his hilarious on-air banter with the fellow commentator, the combative and optimistic Tony Greig accompanied by his iconic hat and pitch assessing key, Nine managed to assemble without a doubt the best ever commentary team. Unbridled, sans any shackles of diplomacy, these men called cricket like nobody else. The stoic aura of Chappelli, the specialist Mark Nicholas who gelled all the opinionated personalities together to orchestrate a brand of a broadcast that has set the benchmark for years to come.

Also if you are looking for that one name, I've been saving the best for the conclusion, then here it is. Richie Benaud. The celebrated Australian leg-spinner and the former captain is without a doubt the voice of cricket on television. He did the post-match wrap-ups with a lucidity that it described the action better than the highlights reel. Never shy or daunted to voice his thoughts, he truly was the best thing about cricket on Nine's Wide World of Sports.

Benaud's commentary will always remain one of the greatest things about the sport and was even immortalized by EA Sports in their raving popular game, Cricket 07. Does not matter how many times you mod that game, you'll always hear "..that has to be close.." and "..he's played all around it.." in Richie's sage-like voice that brought mystic serenity into an otherwise frenetic sport.

And who can forget the tchus.

Adieu, Nine. It was good fun.