^ By the way, for you Some1, if you want to hear good commentary (not cricket, unfortunately), listen to Jon Miller who is the senior play-by-play announcer for San Francisco Giants baseball team. He is both on radio and television, and many times comments on ESPN-carried baseball games too. He is just way too good. You never feel bored when he is commentating, he doesn’t just repeats whats going on the field but add a lot of expert analysis and familiarity with rules and in addition is a great story-teller. Check him out here.
Faisal, I am sorry to say but the old commentators sucked big time. They lacked the analytical aspect of the game and always emphasized on the emotional and national impulse. That kind of dramatic commentary may sell to the masses of Lollywood and Bollywood viewership but never to the true believers of cricket.
Lala Amarnath: "Write it on the waaalls, this match will end in a draaaaaw" (This on the morning of the 5th day with scores almost level and neither team started their second innings yet"
Ifti: And in walks Javed Miandad...the man of the crisis...the lone warrior...and how many times he has taken pakistan out of deep waters...all hope is on him now"
Hasan Jaleel: "Aur aap kau aapka nomaainda hasan Jaleel Melbourne ki baala shigaaf imaartoN say khush aamdeed kehta hay. Neelay aasmaan per halkay halkay baadal chaayey huay haiN..hawa maidaan ki aik jaanib say doosri jaanab lehrahaati huee mandlaa rahee hay..aur Pakistan team kay cuptaan Imran Khan hum say duur bhaagtay huey jaarahay hain...ab dauRR rahay hain, hawaa may uchlay, neechay aayey, gaind kee aur Dean Jones out hotey hotey bachay...umpire nay chakkay kaa ishaara kiya"
If anything, I remember the days of the radio. Commentary blaring from paan-wallah shops, sight of people on the street with their ears stuck to the transmitter....suddenly the radio goes noisy....people converge on the guy "Kya hooaa"....the guy signals four like an Umpire...his ears still planted on the radio......
Oh... those were the days*...."Yes Aaakhashvaani hai...ab hum aapko Eden Gardens le chalte hain jahaan se aap Bharat aur Pakistan ke beech doosre test ke doosre din kaa aankhon dekhaa haal soonenge"*
And I remember sneaking in the pocket radio that my Uncle in California sent for me, to the classroom. It would be the drawing class period and the teacher would have no control over the class. The noise would be defeaning but my ears would be stuck to the little blue radio. I would be surrounded by three to four other cricket lovers listening to the test match. India needing less than hundred to win, Sunny Gavaskar at the crease; Zia ul Haq in the stands of Bangalore, and Iqbal Qasim creating havoc. Now those were the days and to be honest it really didn't matter who was commentating.
And who can forget getting up at 3:30 AM to listen to the first day of the test match in Sydney. Wasim Akram bowling to Deano...and a few hours later it is interrupted with the news that Challenger came down crashing to earth seconds after launch.
but never to the true believers of cricket.
Ever since I read your thread "Super Excited Eight", I have realized that you are no "true believer" of cricket. Aisay hi dhoong machaaya hua hai. In your heart you are still an emotional Pakistani fan.
I think Faisal likes the type of commentary that they used to do it for Hockey and Umer Sharif did a pretty good parody of it in one of his shows.
"Aur gain ab Samiullah kay paas..Samiullah say Kaleemullah...aur ab waapis Samiullah....chota saa paas kaleemullah..Samiullah....wapis Kaleemullah...aur Samiullah nay gaind jaib may daal lee aur rikshay may baith ker maidaan say baaher...muaaf kijiyaygaa naazreen....gaind Kaleemullah kay paas..oye meri patloon chorro...gaind laiker aagay barrhay..meri patloon chorro.....aur yay goal hotay hotay reh gaya"
Good commentary is when its memorable. By your nostalgic comments, you guys just proved my point. I can't recall a single memorabe moment in cricket in recent days, where we now have fabulous commentators like Ian Botham, Sanjay Manjerekar, Aamir Sohail, Rameez Raja and others as talented as they are.
Ever since I read your thread "Super Excited Eight", I have realized that you are no "true believer" of cricket. Aisay hi dhoong machaaya hua hai. In your heart you are still an emotional Pakistani fan.
Yeah I felt the same way when I typed those words that I am not appreciating cricket but in all honesty that is what I felt when I was watching Kiwis playing the bangalees. Now if Australia is playing then that's a different ball game.
Good commentary is when its memorable. By your nostalgic comments, you guys just proved my point. I can't recall a single memorabe moment in cricket in recent days, where we now have fabulous commentators like Ian Botham, Sanjay Manjerekar, Aamir Sohail, Rameez Raja and others as talented as they are.
It is remembered in not so fondly manner, mind you.
Faisal, I think more than the nostalgic commentary you are actually missing the Pakistani team of the late 70s and 80's. I know the commentary at the ongoing WC is not great but to discard other commentators over Chishti and Ifti is not a fair statement either. I would take Ian Chappel and Healey over those guys anytime. It is actually ironic because Ian Chappel has been commentating since 1980. I wonder why Chishti and Ifti left the business? Prolly couldn't keep up with the analytical aspect.
I think Faisal likes the type of commentary that they used to do it for Hockey and Umer Sharif did a pretty good parody of it in one of his shows.
"Aur gain ab Samiullah kay paas..Samiullah say Kaleemullah...aur ab waapis Samiullah....chota saa paas kaleemullah..Samiullah....wapis Kaleemullah...aur Samiullah nay gaind jaib may daal lee aur rikshay may baith ker maidaan say baaher...muaaf kijiyaygaa naazreen....gaind Kaleemullah kay paas..oye meri patloon chorro...gaind laiker aagay barrhay..meri patloon chorro.....aur yay goal hotay hotay reh gaya"
Now this is very funny....because the Indian Hockey team at one time had a fair share of "Singhs" too (it still does to some extent). And these Singhs were not just Sikhs but also Manipuris (from the state of Manipur) and Adivasis (Tribals) with odd names....and the commentary would go like this "Pargat Singh ne paas diya Thoiba Singh ko...Thoiba ne Tikkan Singh ko...baayein flank pe....Tikkan ball ko le jaa rahe hain...Tikkan (in a loud voice).....Tikkan ne Hardeep Singh ko scoop kiyaa..Hardeep penalty box mein ....Hardeep ne MP Singh ke liye ball ko choor diya...aur MP Singh.. (voice getting frantic)....aur MP Singh ne ball ko goal ke bahaar maar biyaa"
I wonder why Chishti and Ifti left the business? Prolly couldn't keep up with the analytical aspect.
I know Iftikhar Ahmed became the CEO of Singer Corporation. Probably got too busy. Not sure about Chistie Mujahid. Analytical aspects, that you guys keep mentioning, are over rated, IMO. Make no mistake. I actually do like a knowledgable person like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram or Gavaskar or Boycott when they pick up a mike and give their thoughts on the finer points of strategy. Its always fun. But to have both commentators yapping about their own views, and many times completely ignorning the actual game that is going on is highly distracting.
By your nostalgic comments, you guys just proved my point.
The reason for nostalgia has nothing to do with the 'quality of the commentary' at the time. Just the memories of the days gone by.....as with most things in the past.
Also, this was RADIO COMMENTARY where the listener had to draw the picture himself...and imazination is always better than the real thing. For example, as a child growing up, the words "Feroz Shah Kotla maidaan" (when I heard it over the radio) often conjured up a very imposing cricket setting in my mind....but it turned out to be huge disappointment when I actually witnessed a match in the ground many years later.
Well if I look back, I remember
Tony Cozier
Tony Greg
Richie Benaud
Ian Chappel
Geoff Boycott
From foreign commentators
And
Chishti Mujahid
Iftikhar Ahmed
Umer Qureshi
Hasan Jaleel
But in all I like those who knew more about cricket then they were commentators. And for this reason I believe Holding to be quite decent. Although he might be considered biased. But he is more insightful then the plain joe types who are just being verbose and displaying their language skills rather than telling you something about cricket that is already not obvious.
So some of our own very best come under the category of boring. While some from overseas are really helpful in having you understand the game and help you decode the plan being implemented somewhat.
I personally learned a lot from the Australian commentators in the 80s.
Bhayee ab aap ke Feroze Shah Kotla maidaan ki disappointment ka tau koi kuch nahi karr sakta. Except for Sidhu, who was probably a maskhara in pichla janam and his Sidhuisms, can you recall any memorable line from any of your now favorite present day commentators? Yeah, yip, yap, yap, yip, more yap and then yip again.
Some1, I know what you mean. I was also mesmerized by the name of Qaddafi Stadium Lahore until I actually went to see a match. The feeling is the same as right after having sex for the first time. So this is it, eh?
Bhayee ab aap ke Feroze Shah Kotla maidaan ki disappointment ka tau koi kuch nahi karr sakta. Except for Sidhu, who was probably a maskhara in pichla janam and his Sidhuisms, can you recall any memorable line from any of your now favorite present day commentators? Yeah, yip, yap, yap, yip, more yap and then yip again.
For one thing, it is unfair to compare the commentary of the past with that in the present.....
Life was much simpler then and we were bombarded by much less media. So things registered in the mind for much longer than it does now . When I was in school, we just had one channel on TV showing a a handful of soaps. Today we have mutliple channels, tonnes of soap operas....but some people still fondly recall the soaps from the one-channel days...does that mean they were necessarily better than the ones today.
Another example - many people in India are , to this day, enamored with the movie "Sholay" from yester years. Now some folks may disagree with me, but if the same "Sholay" was released today, it would not be that big a deal as it was at the time.