Comments ’a’ Lament
We live in these days of cricket overkill, especially with one-day variety and even test cricket, specially the ones where Zimbabwe & Bangladesh are involved in the latter. If one has the interest and time at hand, currently, like yours truly, then you would not have the time to actually take your eyes of the idiot box.
In these days of technology we get to see telecasts from channels from all across the world, the count of which will probably run upto more than a dozen and the game is being commented upon by more than fifty experts and that is what this piece is all about.
Having grown up, partly, during the pre-live tv days one always remembers with fondness, the days of the radio and the bits one saw and heard on the highlights programmes beamed by the generous doordarshan in the ‘80s.
We know that TV and Radio commentary is different due to the obvious, however, one wonders whether the commentators really do know, that, unlike on the radio the viewer can actually see what’s going on.
However, surprisingly most of these com-box men, who are ex-cricketers keep on going at a break-neck speed, some with their baritones, some with their high-pitch voices, repeating the obvious ad nauseam till the viewer has slumped exhausted in his seat.
To compound this, more than a fair share of them, are partisan towards the team they support and however hard they try to camouflage it, tense moments give them away. Backing your own team is fine but jingoism is better avoided when you are supposed to be a neutral, but these gentlemen are blissfully ignorant about the viewers’ sensibilities.
Add to this, the fact that many of these gentlemen indulge in hyperbole, when everything seems ‘great’, ‘lovely’, ‘fantastic’ & ‘beautiful’, and premature exclamations which tends to make the game seem actually mundane.
The latest addition to this state of affairs is the fact that most of them seem to have turned know all psychologists repeatedly ‘getting’ into the heads of the captains, batsmen, bowlers and sometimes even the fielders if they have their way.
Most of these ailments seem to affect the majority of the commentators from the sub-continent but some from the other parts of the world are also guilty of some of these bad habits.
The only one who remains unaffected with all this mayhem around is probably the man who was voted the best commentator of the day, the one and only Richie Benaud, who is the bridge between the times of a John Arlott and a Sanjay Manjrekar. Another personal favourite is Ian Chappell, who,with his polished Aussie accent, must rank as one of the best raconteurs amongst them all although our own ‘little master’ the great Sunil Gavaskar is trying to pick up this trait. All three mentioned are genuine greats of the game and have their own styles which does not play with the patience of the viewer and at the same time respect his intelligence. The ones for the future is definitely Ian Healy and probably Sanjay Manjrekar, though he is developing this bad habit of getting into the head of the guy on the field.
The absolute no-no’s of the current lot are most of the Pakistanis and Sri Lankans, (except the 2 W’s) who either get repetitive or plain cantankerous with alarming regularity. Some of the recent Indian commentators are equally ill equipped for this job and at the top of the list comes L.Sivaramakrishnan with his false accent and shrill-shrieks and Arun Lal can be better but keeps on going like a train, both of them getting on the nerves of the viewer with their incessant hamming, a bit like Anupam Gulati of the DD days. Srinath doesn’t promise much and looks still too involved in the game going on. The best of the current Indian lot arguably still is Ravi Shastri, though he has got a bit opinionated over time and Harsha Bhogle who started off so promisingly but has disappointed lately with his irritating habit of interrupting the likes of Gavaskar and Shastri mid-sentence.
The one man whom one doesn’t know what to make off is another grand old man Geoffrey. Very informative he is and very technical and comes up with his usual gems, though opininiated at times. A pity he is not on air anymore, since ‘even his grandma could comment better than most of the present lot’.
In these days of technology we get to see telecasts from channels from all across the world, the count of which will probably run upto more than a dozen and the game is being commented upon by more than fifty experts and that is what this piece is all about.
Having grown up, partly, during the pre-live tv days one always remembers with fondness, the days of the radio and the bits one saw and heard on the highlights programmes beamed by the generous doordarshan in the ‘80s.
We know that TV and Radio commentary is different due to the obvious, however, one wonders whether the commentators really do know, that, unlike on the radio the viewer can actually see what’s going on.
However, surprisingly most of these com-box men, who are ex-cricketers keep on going at a break-neck speed, some with their baritones, some with their high-pitch voices, repeating the obvious ad nauseam till the viewer has slumped exhausted in his seat.
To compound this, more than a fair share of them, are partisan towards the team they support and however hard they try to camouflage it, tense moments give them away. Backing your own team is fine but jingoism is better avoided when you are supposed to be a neutral, but these gentlemen are blissfully ignorant about the viewers’ sensibilities.
Add to this, the fact that many of these gentlemen indulge in hyperbole, when everything seems ‘great’, ‘lovely’, ‘fantastic’ & ‘beautiful’, and premature exclamations which tends to make the game seem actually mundane.
The latest addition to this state of affairs is the fact that most of them seem to have turned know all psychologists repeatedly ‘getting’ into the heads of the captains, batsmen, bowlers and sometimes even the fielders if they have their way.
Most of these ailments seem to affect the majority of the commentators from the sub-continent but some from the other parts of the world are also guilty of some of these bad habits.
The only one who remains unaffected with all this mayhem around is probably the man who was voted the best commentator of the day, the one and only Richie Benaud, who is the bridge between the times of a John Arlott and a Sanjay Manjrekar. Another personal favourite is Ian Chappell, who,with his polished Aussie accent, must rank as one of the best raconteurs amongst them all although our own ‘little master’ the great Sunil Gavaskar is trying to pick up this trait. All three mentioned are genuine greats of the game and have their own styles which does not play with the patience of the viewer and at the same time respect his intelligence. The ones for the future is definitely Ian Healy and probably Sanjay Manjrekar, though he is developing this bad habit of getting into the head of the guy on the field.
The absolute no-no’s of the current lot are most of the Pakistanis and Sri Lankans, (except the 2 W’s) who either get repetitive or plain cantankerous with alarming regularity. Some of the recent Indian commentators are equally ill equipped for this job and at the top of the list comes L.Sivaramakrishnan with his false accent and shrill-shrieks and Arun Lal can be better but keeps on going like a train, both of them getting on the nerves of the viewer with their incessant hamming, a bit like Anupam Gulati of the DD days. Srinath doesn’t promise much and looks still too involved in the game going on. The best of the current Indian lot arguably still is Ravi Shastri, though he has got a bit opinionated over time and Harsha Bhogle who started off so promisingly but has disappointed lately with his irritating habit of interrupting the likes of Gavaskar and Shastri mid-sentence.
The one man whom one doesn’t know what to make off is another grand old man Geoffrey. Very informative he is and very technical and comes up with his usual gems, though opininiated at times. A pity he is not on air anymore, since ‘even his grandma could comment better than most of the present lot’.
posted by Supratik at 1:30 AM
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