All About Commentators?

[PokerAce]

Commentators come in all kinds - good ones, bad ones, biased ones, ones that are intolerable when they are on air (not what the doctor ordered).

Who are the ones you like, or hate, or love to hate. There are biased commentators too, but most of the bias in favor of their home country is only natural, but there are some commentators, who are biased against a particular country, and that I think is wrong. Do you think there are any commentators who you feel are biased against someone.


For me the good -

Ian Bishop, Ian Botham, Harsha Bhogle, Ian Botham, Ian Chappel, Simon Doull, David Gower, Sanjay Manjarekar, Rameez Raja, Mark Taylor, Wasim Akram, David Lloyd

Off Late I have enjoyed the new breed, especially Jonty Rhodes and Dravid.

The Bad - Navjyot Singh Sidhu, Danny Morrison, Aameer Sohail, Arun Lal, Ranjit Fernando.

The Biased (The Ugly) - Nasser Hussain, Geoff Boycott, Tony Grieg (All strong anti - India bias). Boycott is just lame anyway. After the England hammering in Ashes in Australia, tried to be a wisearse and said he had seen the signs of the England slide even in the 3-0 nil Ashes England win in the Summer, when in the summer he could not stop gushing about how good England was. Ravi Shashtri (strong bias against Pakistan, and well ... pretty much everything sensible. So strong is his pro-India bias that he becomes intolerable on air). Ian Healy is another, too strong an Aus Bias ad thus ends up turning against whoever Austrailia is playing. At some level one could say the same for Ian Chappel but I like listening to him anyway. Sunil Gavaskar very openly biased against Australia, be it sledging or the slightest of issues. Tony Cozier who just goes into long paragraphs about WI cricket even in matches that WI are not playing. I am all for 'pro-country' bias, which is natural, as opposed to 'anti-country' bias, but with Cozier talk about your country when they are playing atleast.

Your lists, thoughts on this list, options etc.

 

[War]

Ha i love Navjot Sidhu, very funny with his use of big english words. Danny Morrison used to be a good funny man when he came out - but he is tries to hard now & is flat now.

Don't think Cozier is biased TBF, is always balanced, just like Benaud he has gotten a bit old & thus makes mistakes (especially on air). He probably should retire.

Hussain's commentary voice & style may be ugly - but I wouldn't call him biased. One of the more straight talking English commentators, he is very balanced on ENG performances never goes over the top. A bit like his captaincy. I'd more put Botham in the biased group TBF.

Boycott's style is lame, but he is pretty fair with his comments. Don't think Greig was anti-india, he loved the place - especially Tendulkar. I can remember many India vs AUS series & sharjah ODI tournaments where Greig used to always be in IND/sub continent commentating.

Similarly with Ranjit Fernando, a bit tough on ears - but I think he is probably the most knowledgeable SRI commentator around, who is fairly level headed in his views on SRI.

Would add Mark Taylor, Mark Richardson, Ian Smith, Fazeer Mohammed, Mike Atherton, Pommie Mbangwa, HD Akerman, Jim Maxwell, Jonathan Agnew to the good list.

Used to love David Hookes before he died.

 

[PokerAce]

Don't think Greig was anti-india, he loved the place - especially Tendulkar. I can remember many India vs AUS series & sharjah ODI tournaments where Greig used to always be in IND/sub continent commentating.

Yeah Tony Grieg sort of turned after BCCI came down hard on the rebel ICL T20 league that was started by a TV channel in India, and Grieg had played a ket part in setting up the rebel league, alongside Dean Jones and Kapil Dev. Its only natural that the any board would strike down hard on all forms of 'rebel' cricket, especially a high profile one. So eventually after lots of rounds including legal battles which led to one of the most landmark rulings on the interpretation of one aspect of Indian constitution which held that BCCI was not 'state', ICL was scrapped. However Tony Grieg after the whole episode was as very anti-India in his commentary. He was more anti India than he had ever been pro India.

 

[War]

^^

Yea I remember that.

 

[zeustrojanstark]

Best : Harsha Bhogle, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Shane Wanrne, Mark Nicholas, Ravi Shastri and David Lloyd.

Acceptable : Ian Bishop, Bill Lawry, Sunil Gavaskar, Mark Taylor, Simon Doull, Danny Morrison.

Horrible : Arun Lal, Rameez Raja, Russel Arnold.

But no one really to Harsha Bhogle's class! Class apart Mr. Bhogle.

 

[SWITCHHIT]

My fav-Navjot Singh Sidhu in hindi "thoko tali"

 

[grkrama]

But no one really to Harsha Bhogle's class! Class apart Mr. Bhogle.

He used to be good in early days, but nowadays its just like every other line he says is supposed to be a great joke

at present personally i like the new breed of commentators rhodes ,dravid ,ganguly even KP for the little while he was in air hope to see him back in the box atleast.

 

[ferg512]

I'm not a fan of many commentators tbh, can't stand most of our kiwi ones especially Danny Morrison, the guy is embarrassing the country his commentary is that bad. Mark Nicholas is also horrendous, especially on the Channel 9 broadcasts. I've always really liked Bishop, Botham, Holding, Warne and Bumble.

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Mark Taylor is also pretty decent.

 

[PokerAce]

I'm not a fan of many commentators tbh, can't stand most of our kiwi ones especially Danny Morrison, the guy is embarrassing the country his commentary is that bad. Mark Nicholas is also horrendous, especially on the Channel 9 broadcasts. I've always really liked Bishop, Botham, Holding, Warne and Bumble.

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Mark Taylor is also pretty decent.

Morrison I don't really hate that much till he gets to the IPL once in the IPL his buffoonery trying to involve the crowd at the toss quite frankly is embarassing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMhssoyns60 Skip to the Danny Morrison part and you would go WTF !!

 

[asprin]

I like listening to

India

• Harsha Bhogle

England

• Nasser Hussain
• Robin Jackman
• David Lloyd

West Indies

• Michael Holding

South Africa

• Barry Richards

Australia

• Michael Slater
• Greg Chappel

This is purely based on Test matches. The list probably changes for ODIs.

 

[ved_]

I think Ramiz Raja is unbelievable at times. He goes further than Ravi Shastri with his comments.

 

[PokerAce]

I think Ramiz Raja is unbelievable at times. He goes further than Ravi Shastri with his comments.

I actually quite like Rameez. I remember when he started in the 90s he was obnoxious to listen to, and his Pro-Pakistan bias in all matches, especially his love for Imran Nazir at one point who if you listened to Rameez, you would have thought was better than Bradman, Tendulkar, Richards, Lara put together and his love for Afridi was also well know who Rameez for 3 years running said was 16 years old.

However off late Rameez has really calmed down and become very neutral. I think I quite enjoy listening to his commentary and the light banter that follows and some of the stories they exchange. Like after the recent defeat of Pakistan to WI he asked Ian Bishop where did WI hide all the spinners in the days when Rameez was playing and instead they had to face the WI pacers and perfume balls. It was a nice funny segment.

 

[asprin]

especially his love for Imran Nazir

Ravi Shastri used to do the same for Robin Uthappa

 

[IceAgeComing]

Its mandatory to listen to TMS when England are playing horribly just to listen to Geoff Boycott. And the only reasons to watch Channel 9 test coverage over Sky's ended last year with Ritchie moving away from ball-by-ball and Tony Greig dying...

TMS is usually my default commentary anyway; I only switch back to Sky when they have Gower, Bumble, Atherton or Holding on because they're actually decent...

 

[PokerAce]

Its mandatory to listen to TMS when England are playing horribly just to listen to Geoff Boycott. And the only reasons to watch Channel 9 test coverage over Sky's ended last year with Ritchie moving away from ball-by-ball and Tony Greig dying...

TMS is usually my default commentary anyway; I only switch back to Sky when they have Gower, Bumble, Atherton or Holding on because they're actually decent...

Bumble I think would be the most universally liked Commentator. (Or atleast second most liked after Benaud, but definitely in top 2).