Letter of the Day

Expert Commentators -- or are they?

At times while watching the games on TV, I get the urge to mute the commentary by our so called expert commentators.

The funny part of it all is that they try very hard to sound intelligent while what they don't understand is that any average listener figures out about their attempt to sound intelligent. It is one thing to be a tiger and it is quite another, to attempt to behave like one. That's the part they do not understand. As a result they make themselves look like bunch of idiots.

It seems to have been taken for granted that anyone who has played international cricket is by default qualifies to be an expert commentator. I fail to understand why a commentator has to be an ex-player? With the exceptation of Harsha Bhogle, every other commentator I've listened to is an ex-player. Giving running commentary is an art and not everyone has that art. None of our current ex-player turned commentator seems to have that art.

Take Ravi Shastri for example -he has about 20 to 25 sentences that he uses in every single game. I've never found him using a single new sentence outside of that list of 20 to 25 pre-defined sentences. Well, if commentary is all about remembering those 20 to 25 sentences and delivering them, you don't need a Ravi Shastri to do that who probably takes a big chunk of money to deliver them day in and day out. Commentators need to be intelligent and work on improving their art which none of these commentators do. At times they even contradict each other.

Following is an example -

3rd Test: Day 1: Morning Session: Commentators Michael Holding and Ravi Shastri.

Ravi: I think West Indies may have made a big blunder by including 4 fast bowlers in the line up.

3rd Test: Day 1: Post tea session: Commentators Michael Holding and Maninder Singh.

Maninder: West Indies has done the right thing by going in with 4 fast bowlers. That is their strength and the team should play to its strength.

What a joke ?? And we call them expert commentators.

Another example of how our expert commentators try hard to sound intelligent -

3rd Test: Day 1: Commentator Arun Lal He was commenting on Sanjay Bangar's game till that point.

Arun: Sanjay should learn to rotate strike. If he does not rotate the strike nor does he score runs, pressure will be built up for the other player. And then, because of pressure, he will do something silly and get out.

Now, any damn listener knows this and one does not need an expert commentator to share it with listeners.

It baffles me why these companies pay big money and hire these idiots as commentators. They should hire people who may not have played the game but know the game well enough to talk intelligently and such people who know the art of commentating. When that happens the game will become more lively to watch on TV.

Binay Das