Rate: Ch.9 commentators

[iamdavid]

Langer was actually pretty good IMO.

Yeah I thought Langer was excellent especially for a first-timer, hearing him talk about Pathan and the impression he made on the Australians when he first emerged was very interesting as was him talking about making runs the ugly way. Get him in there full time.
T'was also just interesting hearing somebody who has been involved with the Australian team more recently as none of the other commentators have played a tests since what 2001? and most of them not since the early 80's at least...they're a little out of touch with the way the team works atm compared to somebody like JL.

As for the current bunch, I like Bill, he can be boring but he's very sensible and knowledgable and its great when he's teamed up with the excitable Slater as they balance each other out.

I dont mind Grieg...can be very whingy and negative at times however he's pretty on the ball and dosent get caught up in all the "aussie aussie aussie" hype the likes of Slater and Healy do.

Nicholas is good, didnt like him at first but he's very balanced and knowledgable...although he does tend to harp on about the same thing over and over.

Can't stand Chappell, seems extremely pig-headed wouldnt change his mind even when obviously wrong (ie on Steve Waugh). Extremely negative and critical in every situation, always finds something to whinge about (ie saying Kumble should be declaring when they got to about 390 even though they were batting well and its been proven even 500 isnt enough at Adelaide recently). And whinge he will, drones on for hours about the very same point with little respite.

Taylor can be a bit dull but he has a wonderful knowledge of the game and he's very straightforward and honest, one of my favourites.

Healy comes up with the odd good bit of technical insight but generally he's annoying, seems constantly biased towards Australia and rarely adds anything of worth to the call.

Slater is okay, has some good technical insights into batting and knows the Australian team very well. Alot of his comments just make me cringe though lol.

 

[James90]

Benaud 9, Nicholas 8, Slater 6, Chappell 5, Taylor 5, Lawry 5, Healy 3, Greig 2.

Get Langer in there ASAP.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Benaud - 7. Gets the job done, and probably the one guy that three commentators suits more as he doesn't have to dribble on as much.
Lawry - 5. You know what you get, and you deal with it. Much better in One dayers.
Taylor - 5. Does too much play by play stuff, whereas he shouldn't have to speak too often and just come up with insights.
Slater - 5. Enthusiastic, but cringeworthy.
Chappell - 4. I rather reading what he has to say after the game, because during it he harps on about the same things far too often, and too many "in my day" stories.
Greig - 4. Same as Lawry, but still stuffs everything up all the time. Someone has to teach him the difference between swing and seam at some stage in life.
Nicholas - 2. Intolerable. Believe it or not, not every point in the match is completely cruicial. And uses the worst segues ever.
Healy - 1. A disgrace to cricket.

 

[roseboy64]

Agreed about Holding. Cozier's good too. Walsh needs work. Dujon is decent. Much better than Healy. Ian Bishop, he's decent I guess. Never heard this Donna Symonds. She's WIndian isn't she?

 

[roseboy64]

Oh and don't get the Nicholas hate. He's pretty good.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Agreed. Always had a lot of patience for the smooth, easy-on-ear style of Nicholas, with the occasional outburst rounding out the package nicely. Is a good contrast with the husky antipodeans.

 

[bond21]

I will do it from the most senior members to the junior members to the best of my memory lol

Richie Benaud - 10/10

Doesnt say much, when he is talking everyone listens.

Bill Lawry - 9.5/10

Has good chemistry with Richie, he has an exciting voice and when he gets excited, its a spectacle to behold. The commentators say he sometimes jumps out of his seat when Australia appeals.

Tony Grieg - 7/10

Alright, seems to root for anyone but Australia, I thought he was actually rooting for India this series.

Ian Chappell - 6/10

Not as exciting as Lawry, Slater or Healy, he is so negative its ridiculous. He seems to be the only person on earth to call Lawry "William" and says it in a smug way.

Jokes with Slater about his ability but there is some nastiness behind the jokes....overall unlikeable.

Mark Taylor - 9/10

Should be communicating to Ponting via the microphone all the time tbh...he is the perfect captain, is 2 overs ahead of the play and is a well respected member of the team.

Ian Healy - 7/10

Good voice, well respected and gets excited sometimes. Nothing wrong with him. Nice bloke too, Ive met him.

Mark Nicholas - 8/10

His voice is very very nice. Charming voice and being groomed to take over from Richie. Ill take Nicholas over David Lloyd or Boycott any day of the week.

Simon O'Donnell - 6/10

I put him down the order because he has only recently been commentating on the matches and he doesnt do it often, although hes been in longer than Nicholas. Bit boring, not bad though.

Michael Slater - 10/10

I rate Slater so high, not so much for his commentating ability, but for his energy and enthusiasm when hes on the air. Nothing better than Slater, Chappell and Taylor on at the same time, its 2v1 and Slater always has a comeback. Love the banter between Taylor and Slater about not being able to run between wickets well enough and Slater never playing a defensive stroke.

 

[bond21]

Also the worst commentator in recent history is unarguably Donna Simmonds....

Someone should tell her to stop talking to Ray Warren because she basically does play by play comments....not to mention that annoying voice..ugh.

Heres a sample sentence of what you can expect to endure from a Donna Simmonds 15 minute spell.

Shane Bond bowls the ball, the batsman misses it and...the...New Zealand...wicketkeeper catches it.(didnt know McCullum's name...) That was a good....ball, the batsman missed it completely.(all this in an annoying Jamaican accent) Now Ian, what do you think of the dancers and the music(notice the complete irrelevence to the match)

Heres another classic example

Now Sanjay(whoever commentator was at the time) do you think either of these 2 teams have been practising the bowl out?

THE BOWL OUT FFS.

ie bowling the ball and hitting the stumps.

Another thing about that, Pakistan made a disgrace of themselves. They didnt hit the stumps ONCE in about 4 balls, these are international cricketers who cant hit the bloody stumps.

If one of their 4 top line bowlers in the country cant hit a set of stumps, somethings wrong with them.

 

[sideshowtim]

I think the hitting the stumps thing is all about how you handle pressure. Everyone in the team should be able to hit the stumps, but if you don't handle pressure well you can miss. Much like a penalty in football. Realistically, barring a freak save, footballers should never miss penalty kicks. Pressure gets to them sometimes though.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Is Fuller a South Australian? Always presumed he was from NSW.

Follows Adelaide in the AFL so I deduced he must have some SA connection or why subject himself?

 

[Richard]

Well I don't know the first thing about AFL. So that explains that.

 

[Richard]

Benaud - 7. Gets the job done, and probably the one guy that three commentators suits more as he doesn't have to dribble on as much.
Lawry - 5. You know what you get, and you deal with it. Much better in One dayers.
Taylor - 5. Does too much play by play stuff, whereas he shouldn't have to speak too often and just come up with insights.
Slater - 5. Enthusiastic, but cringeworthy.
Chappell - 4. I rather reading what he has to say after the game, because during it he harps on about the same things far too often, and too many "in my day" stories.
Greig - 4. Same as Lawry, but still stuffs everything up all the time. Someone has to teach him the difference between swing and seam at some stage in life.
Nicholas - 2. Intolerable. Believe it or not, not every point in the match is completely cruicial. And uses the worst segues ever.
Healy - 1. A disgrace to cricket.

Blimey, another hard one to please.

Incidentally, quite fascinating to hear how popular MCJ appears to be in Australia. Guess this explains how he's now on his, what, 5th(?) consecutive summer on the Nine team. Reckon he might well turn-out to be more popular over there than over here. Not that I mind him personally at all, quite the opposite, but I seem to remember most of my countrymen tended to. That said, he'd not have been C4's frontman for 7 years if he was roundly hated.

Almost worth polling, hactually, to see

 

[Richard]

Richie's the best, imo, because he's a qualified broadcaster and journalist with proper training whereas most of the others are just former players playing 'TV man'.

There's far too few professional cricket broadcasters these days and far too many former professional cricketers.

 

[masterblaster]

There's far too few professional cricket broadcasters these days and far too many former professional cricketers.

Hasha Bhogle is a professional cricket broadcaster and is one of the best. Having never played the game, he's still one of the better commentators out there. Just reading about him actually, he's apparently done a Chemical Engineering degree from Hyderabad and has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management. Pretty intelligent bloke with a good presence in the commentary box.

 

[archie mac]

Hasha Bhogle is a professional cricket broadcaster and is one of the best. Having never played the game, he's still one of the better commentators out there. Just reading about him actually, he's apparently done a Chemical Engineering degree from Hyderabad and has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management. Pretty intelligent bloke with a good presence in the commentary box.

I enjoy him also, but he could give the score the Aussie way while he is here

 

[Richard]

Hasha Bhogle is a professional cricket broadcaster and is one of the best. Having never played the game, he's still one of the better commentators out there. Just reading about him actually, he's apparently done a Chemical Engineering degree from Hyderabad and has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management. Pretty intelligent bloke with a good presence in the commentary box.

Yeah, Harsha's one of my plentiful favourites.

Interestingly, though, I probably like Ravi Shastri of Indians a bit better still, or at least as much. Is he in any way a qualified broadcaster or simply one of those lucky enough (unlike, say, Sanjay) to have the ability to have the ability with both whites and mic?

 

[Richard]

I enjoy him also, but he could give the score the Aussie way while he is here

Seriously, Sean, does anyone actually do that? I know only few of the Aussies who tend to come over here do it in reverse, and nor really would I expect them to.

 

[masterblaster]

Yeah, Harsha's one of my plentiful favourites.

Interestingly, though, I probably like Ravi Shastri of Indians a bit better still, or at least as much. Is he in any way a qualified broadcaster or simply one of those lucky enough (unlike, say, Sanjay) to have the ability to have the ability with both whites and mic?

I don't think Ravi is a qualified broadcaster. Ofcourse he was a very good all round cricketer with a pretty good cricketing mind. He always had a lot of charisma too and still does. Back in the 80's and 90's the Indian media was always linking him with various Bollywood actresses and he dated a few of them too. So yeah, just a very natural cricketer and also a very charismatic commentator.

 

[burr]

quite fascinating to hear how popular MCJ appears to be in Australia.

Who is MCJ? Nicholas? He's okay, when you compare him to the rest of the 9 rubbish. If you got him with a team of a higher calibre he'd be average. The 9 box needs a massive overhaul, very stale at the mo.

Yeah Bogle is good, can be a little ****y, but still good. Him and Kerry work well together, just like Kerry and Agnew worked well together. Because they don't take any cr** from Kerry and point out when he's being try-hard funny so KoK subsequently works harder. But even the ABC's been-par this summer, Mitchell is dire (bring back Tim Lane!!!) and too much of Flemming.

 

[archie mac]

Seriously, Sean, does anyone actually do that? I know only few of the Aussies who tend to come over here do it in reverse, and nor really would I expect them to.

No, all the Aussies do it the English way when they are guests of TMS

And Blowers and Aggers do it the Aussie way when they are here, so HB should to it the 'right' way also