The changing shades of cricket commentary

Cricket commentary has changed its shades over the years

They say, ‘Test cricket is the best cricket’. I second that. But when you are watching it on TV, try to watch it on mute for some time. It doesn’t feel so great does it? Watching cricket on television and at the stadium are entirely two different experiences. The environment in the stadium is so energetic that you don’t need the commentary. Whereas, at home watching cricket on TV is a relaxed experience. If you are a true fan of the game, you will give attention to the technical and statistical details and commentary provides you exactly that, along with expert views.

I have been a keen cricket follower since 1998. So here, I would give the account of the last one and half decade. I have observed that cricket commentary has changed somewhat along with the game. Back then in the Richie Benaud days, there were not as many commentators as there are today. The radio and the TV used to broadcast the same commentary.

24x7 commentary

Also in those days, there were not so many channels that would broadcast cricket, so you could listen to the same commentary panel in most of the cricketing events in a year. The style of the commentary was different. They would talk about cricket and hardly diverted from the game. Indian commentators like Harsha Bhogle, Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar had already established themselves in the commentary career along with the greats like Ian Chappel, Geoffrey Boycott and the late Tony Greig. When the game reached exciting moments, these commentators made sure we felt it. Even if you were listening to it on a radio, you could feel like you were watching it.

As the new TV channels began to surface, the broadcasting of cricket matches became a bit more complicated. Different channels bought the rights to broadcast of different countries. With that, they also started making their own commentary panels by hiring commentators under their contract. This increased the number of commentators as they were divided across channels.

Most of the retired cricketers started to seek commentary as their second career and succeeded as well. This also increased the number of regional commentators and helped channels to connect more viewers of a particular country. Nowadays channels capitalize on the presence of cricketing stars even in the commentary box. They make sure the fans don’t miss their favorite cricketer’s presence on field by bringing him as a commentator off the field.

Commentators are not just confined to commentary role these days, they also appear as analysts on news channels and will be seen having their own shows at the channels which they have signed the contract with. So even when there are no cricket tournaments happening, commentators are kept busy. With the commentators bound to a particular cricket board’s contract (read BCCI), they might not be able to let out all the honest opinions they have.

Since the introduction of glamorous tournaments like IPL, there is a little twist in the modern day commentary. The type of commentary can be quite contrasting when it comes to local tournaments like IPL. The commentators are bound to say the sponsor’s name every now and then. They have to know the names of famous celebrities of the country and also have to put up with the movie promotions. The commentary will be loud and overly energized. We have Danny Morrisons, Laxman Shivaramakrishnans and Ravi Shastris to take care of this.

The various flavours of commentary

The tournaments like this have made the commentary in regional language (especially Hindi) a hit among the viewers. Channels roping in the old time favorites like Navjot Singh Sidhu, Ajay Jadeja and Arun Lal, who are taking Hindi commentary to a whole new level. On the other hand, when there are international tournaments happening, it’s soothing to hear pure cricketing opinions from the likes of Michael Holding, Harsha Bhogle etc.

The modern commentary may not be about cricket all the time. The commentators talk about a lot of things when they are doing commentary during Test match. They share their experiences on visiting different places, some incidents that happened in the dressing room or hotel to keep the viewers interested. It is always interesting to hear the friendly banter between the former on field rivals in the commentary box.

There is also a certain level of sarcasm sometimes in the commentary these days which is of course keeping up with the current trends. Sourav Ganguly and Nasser Hussain impress me as they are brutally honest. They don’t think twice while criticizing a player’s tactics. Harsha Bhogle has always been my favorite commentator and he continues to impress. As a big fan, I am happy with the presence of my favorite cricketer Rahul Dravid in the commentary box and the words coming out of his mouth are just as exquisite as his square cuts and cover drives. There are also a lot of other international commentators who I have not mentioned here are good at what they do.

The commentary has adapted to the changing times in cricket. I certainly hope it will continue to do so. Cricket is a beautiful game and watching it on TV with some good commentary on is all a true cricket fan can ask for.