Favourite Commentator

[Blackhat]

Cricinfo users have voted ESPN-Star's Harsha Bhogle their favourite TV cricket commentator. A poll run on the site over May and June drew votes from thousands of users - a significant percentage of them Indians - who also voted for their top commentators in three other categories: Most Unbiased, Most Entertaining and Most Insightful.

Bhogle and second-placed Ravi Shastri between them were the top choice for nearly a quarter of respondents. Channel Nine's Richie Benaud was third. Tony Greig and Geoff Boycott were the others in the top five.

The "Most Entertaining" category saw the closest finish: Greig pipped Boycott by just three votes. David Lloyd - who is with Sky - came in third, Bhogle fourth, and Channel Nine's Bill Lawry at No. 5.

Benaud was the clear winner in the "Most Unbiased" category, with Bhogle following and Shastri narrowly taking third place from Michael Holding.

As may have been expected, the "Most Insightful" title was a race between Ian Chappell and Benaud. Chappell won - though not by a large margin. Bhogle was a distant third.

Bhogle, though, was the only commentator who made the top fives in all three secondary categories.

The list of nominees
Aamer Sohail, Danny Morrison, Ian Smith, Michael Holding, Richie Benaud, Alan Wilkins, David Gower, Jeff Dujon, Michael Slater, Robin Jackman, Allan Donald, David Lloyd, Jeremy Coney, Nasser Hussain, Sanjay Manjrekar, Arun Lal, Geoff Boycott, Kepler Wessels, Nick Knight, Simon O'Donnell, Barry Richards, Graham Gooch, L Sivaramakrishnan, Pat Symcox, Sunil Gavaskar, Bill Lawry, Harsha Bhogle, Mark Nicholas, Paul Allott, Tony Cozier, Bob Willis, Ian Bishop, Mark Richardson, Pommie Mbangwa, Tony Greig, Bruce Yardley, Ian Botham, Mark Taylor, Ramiz Raja, Waqar Younis, Charles Colville, Ian Chappell, Martin Crowe, Ranjit Fernando, Wasim Akram, Damien Fleming, Ian Healy, Michael Atherton, Ravi Shastri, Zaheer Abbas

How did David Lloyd not win this, he is easily the best commentator.

 

[Leicester Fox]

That is why internet polls never ever ever will work.

 

[South Africa]

I really don't like any of the Australian commentators but the English ones are very good, I like Bumble to.

Bumble is my favourite by a mile.

 

[Highlander999]

Boycott. Entertaining???? Are those guys smoking something?????

 

[India2011]

I voted Ravi Shastri, Ian Chappel, Sunny Gavaskar, Micheal Slater, and David Lloyd

 

[irottev]

Bhogle? Never heard of him. I guess we haven't played (India?) for ages.

 

[shravi]

Bhogle? Never heard of him. I guess we haven't played (India?) for ages.

He wasn't a cricket player. Maybe that's a reason. He has an immense passion for the game and his knowledge is vast and he leaves no stone unturned.

And Highlander, I love Boycott! He may not always make sense but he makes me laugh from time to time. Same reason I like Navjot Sidhu.

 

[icyman]

Tom,you need to see old matches more often.
Boycott and Sidhu-they were easily the best pair when they used to do it together.

 

[stereotype]

anyone except Ian Healy and him giving his expertise on batting and bowling :

 

[Mad Snake]

Bhogle? Never heard of him. I guess we haven't played (India?) for ages.

im with you, these poll results are shite

 

[DPRA]

Bumble is the best commentator ever.

 

[0601731]

bumble is entertaining,the worst i ve head are mushtaq ahmed and sikandar bhakt.....ravi shastri is one of the best.

 

[Themer]

I think that Bumble is easily the best commentator. Others I enjoy listening to are Michael Slater, Michael Atherton, Shaun Pollock(seems very good judging from then 1st Test of the series), Richie Benaud, Nasser Hussain and Ian Smith.

 

[Huegel]

Slats did a good job from his Channel 4 days definitely and I actually quite like Mark Nicholas, but from the current Sky line up it's got to be Bumble and Sir Beefy for the victory...with an honourable mention going to Michael Holding.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

I really like Nasser Hussain to be honest. Really calm and collected guy who knows his stuff. David Lloyd is also quite good.