There are some interesting high-tech angles on televised sport these days, from the cockpit of F1 cars to the inside of cricket stumps. Yet it was very different 70 years ago tomorrow when cricket was first televised live.

It was the second Test from Lord's: England v Australia. Though revolutionary, it was basic. The BBC had three cameras, two at the Nursery End (one directed at the batsman and the other at the bowler) and the other perched on the roof of the Tavern Hotel. The commentary position was also at the Nursery End, on the site of what is now the Edrich Stand.

There was no such thing as an action replay, no highlights package, and, indeed, this landmark went virtually without promotion by the BBC - just a few lines in the Radio Times. And though John Logie Baird had experimented with colour that year, this was still very much the embryo era even for black and white.

Only people within some 20 miles of the Alexandra Palace transmitter could see it, and it's estimated that the total number of TV sets sold was around 7000. At today's prices these would have cost some £3000 apiece.

Martin Williamson, in a historical appraisal for Cricinfo, recounts how his father saw that game in a friend's Kent electrical store. It was the first time he had even seen a TV set. A large crowd gathered to watch a screen in the shop window. The police decided it was causing an obstruction, and dispersed it.

Despite its limited London-centric currency, this first match received sympathetic reviews from UK national media. However, the Glasgow Herald was oblivious to it. There was an extensive report of the match, recording how King George VI was among the spectators. But no mention of TV.

Despite quality which would now seem dismal, the game went into the homes, if not of the nation, then at least of the wealthy around London. Some might argue this marked the birth of parochial partisan attitudes that survive today.

A nostalgic footnote came in March this year, with the death of former Aussie captain Bill Brown at the age of 95. His country's oldest Test player, he was still keeping fit - swimming, cycling, and using a chainsaw in his 90s.

Brown carried his bat for 206 in that first televised Test and finished his career with 39 centuries and a best score of 265 (on that same tour, when he finished second only to Don Bradman in averages).

In 1939 both London Tests against the West Indies were broadcast, but BBC's TV service was terminated on the outbreak of war. It was thought German aircraft might use the signal. Cricket next appeared on TV in June 1946, the Lord's Test against India.

Sixty years after those first flickering images, the BBC surrendered their uninterrupted rights to a joint Sky and Channel 4 bid worth £103m to the England and Wales Cricket Board. In December 2004 the announcement of a £220m four-year deal with BSkyB finally pulled the plug on terrestrial live coverage.