The Dying Art of Cricket Commentary

It is been a very long time since I have watched live cricket. It is partly because I have cultivated aversion towards Television and mostly due to lack of opportunity. But I could not force myself to watch the game without the ‘mute’ button being active. I don’t remember the last time when the commentary was so annoying. One of the important rules for commentary in any sport is ‘not to insult the viewer by narrating what he can already see’. Book cover designer Chip Kidd in a TED talk spoke about one of the important lessons which he learnt as a beginner, “ Either quote the word ‘Apple’ on the cover or print a fleshy picture of the fruit, but don’t do both”.

I watched it only for a few minutes. I do not who were voicing from the commentary box, but I certainly found it manufactured noise intended to disrupt me happily watching the game. They were more focused on coming up with more adjectives and innovative scenarios to describe what I was seeing. Let me throw an example. Jadeja was brought into the attack close to the 20^th over. His first ball was ‘reverse swept’ by Warner for a four. And the commentators went,

“I was going to say that he might play the reverse sweep on the first ball”

The second one, “Unbelievable shot. Warner will punish you for poor deliveries”.

When I heard this, the ‘mute’ button on the remote faced my thumb’s pressure. I am not an ardent fan of cricket but I could understand a few from my mediocre observations.

Jadeja bowled a decent delivery which was of good length, pitched in the middle and not much spin. Warner played a good reverse sweep. Being the first ball the field was not tailored for an odd shot and he picked up valuable runs. Since it was Jadeja’s first delivery he is bound to be unsettled. Even narrating these would be mediocre commentary but they failed to do even that. If one who is watching cricket after a very long time could feel angry on irresponsible commentary I could only pity those who watch cricket often.

Photo Courtesy: Patrick aka Herjolf

Commentators are not fiction writers to use juicy adjectives. They are narrating facts and they are better to listen when said using simple words. There are a lot of domains which an average viewer can’t see. I can definitely observe a fielding change but not beyond that. I know that the ‘fine leg is up in the circle’, but I do not know whether it is the right thing to do at this point of the game? What delivery can I expect from the bowler? Is the batsman good in playing for such a field? Has this been attempted before a few minutes? Could there be any other options?

Cricket commenting is an art and it is dying. But there are a few who still do it best. When I was listening to a match few months ago over the radio Raina was out on the first ball and here is what was said,

“You don’t expect that from an experienced player. Raina should have given himself a few deliveries before he went for that shot.”

And he stopped.

Consider this from Harsha Bhogle when Sachin played a classy straight drive in an IPL game.

“Open textbook. Go to page 32.”

The commentary made that shot more enjoyable. It would be nice for viewers if commentators learn from the very few peers who still do it good and great if they have trained before they call themselves as commentators.

Photo Courtesy (External Link): 

Patrick aka Herjolf