Alastair Campbell recalls the Lions tour and following cricket by text

When I took a job with the British and Irish Lions for their tour of New Zealand, everyone was saying, along with the Ashes, it would be one of the two most exciting sports events of the summer. I think it fair to say the Ashes has put the Lions tour firmly into second place.

Don't get me wrong - though I hate defeat and took no pleasure seeing the Lions go down 3-0 in the Test series, and though it was a tad bizarre to find some of my dear friends in the media part blaming me for the losses - it was still on balance a positive experience. It may seem odd to say this given the scale of defeat, but I learned a huge amount about the preparation and professionalism required for elite sport.

I also enjoyed getting to know the different characters and personalities, not least the Irishmen, who I think won the Four Nations battle on the character and personality front. Like Donncha O'Callaghan, the only man ever to have filmed me and interviewed me while I was making a visit to the gents (even the BBC at the height of my dispute with them would leave the camera at the door). The same O'Callaghan who memorably responded to Paul O'Connell's observation as Donncha and I chatted away that he had never seen two people sitting together with such a big IQ variant by turning towards me and saying "yeah, you dope".

O'Connell himself, the first man to have removed my trousers in front of the media, as we left a press conference he whipped my untied tracksuit bottoms down to the floor.

Gordon D'Arcy, who did the same thing a few days later when he realised I hadn't learned the lesson the first time, and had failed to tie them up properly.

I enjoyed the friendly banter with Ronan O'Gara, who taught me that down in Cork the word "langer" is not a reference to Australia's opening batsman.

I enjoyed the political chat with Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie, who know a damn sight more about British politics than many Brits do. I enjoyed the quick one-liners of Eddie O'Sullivan, as when we had a public training session as part of our so called charm offensive to win over the New Zealand public. I asked him if it had any merit as a real training session. "Sure," he said "about the same as a chocolate fireguard."

I enjoyed getting to know John Feehan, the Irish chief executive of the Lions who was always calm and solid and good when the going got tough. I enjoyed meeting the wives and girlfriends and families of the players even though I would have preferred to meet the family of Brian O'Driscoll in happier circumstances than on the night he was dumped out of the tour.

So lots of memories and hopefully friendships that will endure. But the sad truth is we lost and as a spectacle it did not live up to expectations, which is why the Ashes stands supreme as the most exciting event of the summer so far.

As the build-up to the first Test at Lord's reached its peak, perhaps scarred by the Lions experience, I observed to my sons that there was no way the series could live up to this hype. But it has.

It has also taught me the phenomenal tension and pleasure that can result in following sports events by text message. I was in England for the first Test and able to see a fair bit of it every day. It was fairly compelling stuff. I also noticed, for the first time since I was actually going to Test matches as a student, that everywhere you went, people were making an effort to find out what was happening, expressing a view, getting to know characters who until now had barely impinged on their lives.

By the first day of the second Test we were loading the car and setting off on holiday to the worst country in the world from which to follow a cricket Test match, namely France. They just don't get it, and never will. They are particularly sore at Paris having lost out to London in the battle to host the 2012 Olympics so the chances of getting any French media coverage of the cricket had gone from slim to nil.

I had an arrangement with a friend that he would send me text updates after each hour of play. That was fine for the first morning. But he quickly realised there was too much going on to get summaries into a single text. So we changed it to update on every major incident - a wicket, a six, a dropped catch, a particularly good or bad over. By the final two days, the texts were coming in faster than those being sent to Shane Warne's mobile after his number was circulated by some langer in the City.

Come the final stand to defend the final wicket in Australia's second innings, we were down to ball-by-ball texting. Eventually, with 20 runs needed for Australia to win, it became unbearable and I had to phone and just leave the phone on top of the telly.

Heaven knows how much the five days cost us in phone bills but it was worth every penny to hear that roar as the final wicket fell.

Equally, while on holiday I avoid British newspapers as much as I can but an essential part of following the game by text has been to get the broadsheets the next day and try to build a better picture around the bare facts of the text messages.

In my childhood growing up in Yorkshire, I could not get enough of watching Geoff Boycott at the crease. Seeing him score his 100th hundred against the Aussies at Headingley is right up there in my top sporting memories.

Today, denied his excellent TV commentaries by dint of being in a cricket desert zone, I can't get enough of his columns. I am loving the fact that cricket is for once penetrating the blanket coverage devoted to soccer, no mean feat as the Premiership kicks off and England's World Cup qualifiers loom.

I am enjoying the professionalism of whichever Aussie is thinking up the excellent non-match day picture ideas. I loved the accounts of the visit by 27 of the Aussie party to see Altrincham v Bangor City, because their coach driver is chairman of Altrincham FC.

We've sent off for the DVD of the Edgbaston Test so that at least we can see the events that caused us so much excitement by the pool.

With the third Test under way, we are back to occasional text messages, that will hopefully get less occasional as excitement mounts.

Edgbaston was a hard act to follow, but with Freddie Flintoff in front of his home crowd, English cricket knowing this could be the start of a revivalist era for the sport, and the Aussies knowing they are beatable, it promises to be an exciting few days, and days of bounty for mobile phone companies.

We have been coming to France for summer holidays for more than 20 years. For the first time, I wish we had gone to Manchester instead.