Each one of them has brightened up the game which earlier had everyone in “Whites” and with the odd “Cherry” moving around. But there were “Commentators” then and there are “Commentators” now luckily they have’nt disappeared.Commentary has always been an indispensible part for any sport and especially for Cricket where there is such a huge target audience off-field, the one who track the match on Television or Radio, one can never eliminate or ignore commentators.
There is something special about these guys, I must say as they give life to the game and with their illustrations and observations they really have the power to even make a boring dayat the field hyper exciting . They are like painters who always try to decorate the game with their baritone, subtleness and sometimes sheer passion. One can easily say it’s an easy life for a commentator as he has to simply sit in an air conditioned room, watch the game in the best possible comforts and talk and talk.
But Commentary is not only”talking”, Its much more as they should possess every minute detail regarding the game, every small change made on the field, every moment to capture and more importantly these should match the taste of the audience as otherwise they may not be accepted.
Nowadays it’s been more difficult than ever as there is so much competition around and the audience always wants that drama, one liners and a little more than merely reading out the game . Commentry is also handled and taken care of some of the female counterparts which is a good prospect and one can just expect more of the likes of Dona Simmons and Anjum Chopra to take the league of female commentators ahead.
It has been a good mix of commentators all these years as one can see there have been ex cricketers, legends of the game, donning the hat of the commentators as the likes of Sir Richie Benaud, Sir Geoffery Boycott, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and more recently Anil Kumble and also one can see an odd Harsha Bhogle who does an excellent job even without first hand experience of playing at that level.
There have been transitions as far as commentary is concerned where earlier Commentary was more of a quiet affair and well not to take out any of its class which later moved into an exciting and pumping phase where the likes of Tony Greig, Dean jones, Bill Lawry set the mood rolling with their high drama high charge high octane commentary. Who can ever forget the famous “Sharjah days” where every match was played in front of such huge crowds and well commentary of such high passion made it a must watch . Well the most famous of those instances has to be the one in which Sachin Tendulkar famously hit that straight six of Micheal Kasprowicz and Tony Greig just went crazy check it here.
Apart from excitement and drama one can see some very good observations made by some of the commentators like Ian Chappel, Boycott where they do not fear to call a spade a spade and if something is not happening right they would not keep quiet and also their criticisms are respected. Be it the language, tonality or the expression they have it all. My personal favourite has to be the one where Sunil Gavaskar thrashed the Australian captain Ricky Ponting during the famous Ganguly-Clarke catch controversy. He wanted to prove a point and the way in which he did it was simply awesome . Instances like that take commentary to a different level altogether.Check it here
We have them all from the soft spoken to the loud to the task masters and also the humorous who add all the ingredients which are so much required for a good cricketing experience.Be it the Radio, Televison , Pre match talk or Post match analysis the commentators are there everywhere sharing their knowledge expertise and experience such that we audience not only relish the game played on the ground but also take home some knowledge from them. All in all a good bargain if you cannot make it up to the stadium to witness live action.
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