Kevin Hand

Kevin Hand is a commentator for BBC London 94.9, best known for his commentary on fixtures featuring the Middlesex County Cricket Club.

Internet Fame and Rumours
Kevin Hand is frequently the butt of jokes and pranks, particularly at the hands of fellow BBC commentator Mark Church, who started the the vicious rumour that Kevin was slated to appear in the 2007 edition of Strictly Come Dancing. These rumours garnered surprisingly widespread support on the internet, and continue to persist, even going into the 2008 season. Commentators Church and Hand are responsible for a new genre of live broadcasting, which supplements the ball-by-ball commentary with live emails from listeners around the world. They have also been instrumental in promoting BBC coverage of the county game in general. Today nearly 1/2 the first run English cricket sides imitate this new broadcasting paradigm. Their worldwide listening audience often exceeds the live attendance.

During County Championship matches, as he is usually responsible for solo commentary over a period of seven and half hours, Kevin Hand encourages listeners to send him e-mails on a wide-ranging variety of subjects. He appears especially to enjoy e-mails from the United States, and has expressed interest in uniquely American events such as the Testicle Festival in Clinton, Montana. This has given rise to a new internet rumor involving a Trans-American tour in 2008 called "Hand Across America," where Kevin will visit numerous cities in the United States to promote the game of cricket.

Reforms in County Cricket

Hand has frequently voiced many proposals for the reform of the structure and schedule of English Cricket. Foremost among these is his idea, first proposed in 2006, to change the organization of the County Championship into three divisions. While he has been criticized by fellow commentator David Townsend, Hand maintains this is idea of his has merit.

He has also proposed that the County Championship season (which would be reduced to 10 games under his proposal) should start after the conclusion of the IPL season, and that County Championship games should not be played while England is playing a test match. Townsend was unkind enough to point out that when the IPL, Test Matches and the Twenty20 tournament are taken into account there are not 10 weeks available to play County Championship games, much to Hand's annoyance.

Support for Middlesex Cricket

Hand is also noted for his enthusiasm and fan perspective on Middlesex, reflected in his varying degrees of support for members of the current playing squad. Hand professes a special affection for Owais Shah, often describing him on commentary as his favourite player, and frequently devoting passages of commentary to Shah's England career, and advocating for him to be a regular member of the Test side. Hand's perceived lack of objectivity in relation to Shah's performances is considered an "in-joke" amongst regular listeners to the BBC London coverage, and a common subject of comment via listeners' emails.

Hand has recently shown a marked increase in support for Steven Finn, the young fast-medium bowler for Middlesex.

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