Best and Worst TV Commentators

[flibbertyjibber]

Nick Knight is terrible, shown himself up as being even worse than I ever imagined as well in this series against India.

 

[harsh.ag]

From the ones I get to hear most, I cannot stand Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar and Navjot Sidhu. Gavaskar and Arun Lall are awful as well. I have thoroughly enjoyed Rahul Dravid this time though. Succinct, and no nonsense. Plus he has so much grace and humility while speaking. Hope they don't wear off with age. I generally like Atherton and Lloyd.

Richie Benaud has always been good as far as I can recall. Tony Greig switches on and off. Never heard Lawry for a long stretch (actually I must have, but I didn't know if it was him or somebody else), and don't like Mark Nicholas and Danny Morrison.

 

[Pothas]

Nick Knight is terrible, shown himself up as being even worse than I ever imagined as well in this series against India.

Yeah, he is not going anywhere though is he?

Think Mark Butcher is good from the small amount I have heard from him, would like to see him get more of a go.

 

[M0rphin3]

Mark Nicholas' sycophantic drivel is unbearable.
I'm convinced Danny Morrison has not said a complete sentence in his life.
Craig McMillan thinks his job is to critique every fielding set whenever the batsmen are playing well.

Tony Cozier is excellent
Tony Grieg and Simon Doull are good.

AWTA, Danny is bearable tho IMO.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Yeah, he is not going anywhere though is he?

Think Mark Butcher is good from the small amount I have heard from him, would like to see him get more of a go.

Yean, Butch is a safe pair of hands, but I think Onions and Key have more potential. Fat Bob has a nice line in dry self-deprecation and Onions is clearly a tactical thinker, belying the stereotypes about northern quicks and the space between their ears. Calls a spade and spade too, not something the current ot recently retired always do.

Obviously both are still playing tho, so (one presumes) their English season appearances will be limited until such time as they give it away.

 

[Pothas]

Oh yeah Key is excellent for sure, not heard Onions I don't think.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

The worst imo has got to be Craig Mcmillan every test match he goes on about how the Black Caps need to value their wicket and bat with patience. He makes Morrision look good.

I have vague memories of Shane Bond being a good commentator, he had some good stuff to say, and made a good team with Mark Richardson

 

[GotSpin]

Yep good news. Have noticed how much Tony Grieg adds to the team now that he hasn't been there, nein without Lawry and Grieg would be a pretty dry place.

Tony Greig is hilarious IMO

 

[Crazy Sam]

The Australian Cricketer's Australian did a player poll on various things which was published in today's newspapers.

Here are who the players rate as commentators:

CURRENT PLAYERS:MALE	FEMALE	PAST PLAYERS
Damien Fleming	47%	9%	35%
Shane Warne	43%	25%	30%
Kerry O’Keeffe	27%	10%	30%
James Brayshaw	26%	6%	10%
Richie Benaud	25%	35%	26%
Mark Nicholas	18%	10%	19%
Mark Waugh	18%	5%	14%
Michael Slater	14%	28%	15%
Greg Blewett	13%	7%	8%
Andrew Symonds	13%	6%	3%
Adam Gilchrist	13%	23%	11%
Jim Maxwell	9%	3%	25%
Bill Lawry	7%	5%	10%
Allan Border	7%	0%	6%
Ian Healy	6%	33%	14%
Ian Chappell	6%	9%	17%
Tony Greig	3%	10%	4%
Mark Taylor	4%	18%	15%
Brendan Julian	2%	9%	4%

Geoff Lawson got 0 votes.

 

[Pup Clarke]

What's the majorities beef with Knight?. Yeah, he talks incessantly and likes spouting his cliches - and obviously Trott (former team-mate) usually escapes critique but I've never had a problem listening to the guy. Just comes across as the annoying uncle at Weddings who try's to be cool and hip but he's harmless.

Gower's even worse when it comes to the cliches ftr. Does the job fine as a studio anchor but his analysis of the game is pretty limited.

 

[BoyBrumby]

The Australian Cricketer's Australian did a player poll on various things which was published in today's newspapers.

Here are who the players rate as commentators:

CURRENT PLAYERS:MALE	FEMALE	PAST PLAYERS
Damien Fleming	47%	9%	35%
Shane Warne	43%	25%	30%
Kerry O’Keeffe	27%	10%	30%
James Brayshaw	26%	6%	10%
Richie Benaud	25%	35%	26%
Mark Nicholas	18%	10%	19%
Mark Waugh	18%	5%	14%
Michael Slater	14%	28%	15%
Greg Blewett	13%	7%	8%
Andrew Symonds	13%	6%	3%
Adam Gilchrist	13%	23%	11%
Jim Maxwell	9%	3%	25%
Bill Lawry	7%	5%	10%
Allan Border	7%	0%	6%
Ian Healy	6%	33%	14%
Ian Chappell	6%	9%	17%
Tony Greig	3%	10%	4%
Mark Taylor	4%	18%	15%
Brendan Julian	2%	9%	4%

Geoff Lawson got 0 votes.

Very pleased to see Julian down at the bottom. He's ploppy pants.

But Healy above Chappelli, Greig and Tubby? Pffft...

Gilly robbed too; he's golden.

 

[Satyanash89]

Benaud: Is great to listen to... presents the game as it is, is calm,graceful and humble... can sometimes be a bit too calm, though, even when the game's on a knife's edge
9/10

Ian Chappell: Oscillates between being an insightful, and smart commentator and an absolutely blind, stupid, little ****. Love that he analyzes the game as if he was the captain, though its sometimes overkill ( "If i was captain..." oh FFS, shut up, youre not)
Loses a point for making the worst call of all time... Blewett's lbw against mushtaq
6/10


Sunil Gavaskar: a gigantic douchebag and enormously biased at times, but on occasion shows he really understands the game and is worth a listen.. can be hilarious at times when he gets angry at umpires when decisions go against India. 5/10


Tony Greig: Can be extremely silly but he's effortlessly lively and his enthusiasm seems genuine. Plus, his commentary during some of Sachin's masterpieces in the 90s is pretty much part of Indian cricket folklore so i love him. 7/10

Bill Lawry: same as greig

Boycott: Love him to bits... is hilarious especially when he puts down Greig
8/10

Mark Nicholas and Harsha Bhogle: Both do pretty much the same job... lots of arse-licking drivel but theres no real reason to loathe them 5/10

Ganguly: Not bad at all... Isnt afraid to hand down criticism but doesnt rant on like Chappelli 6/10

Dravid: Seems like India's answer to Benaud... knows when to say what, and when to shut up... gun just like everything else he does
9/10 Hope he stays in the box for a while

Manjrekar: Can go on for way too long sometimes and tries to overanalyze things but i find him alright most of the times... isnt too much of an annoyanceand dont really understand the enormous hate for him 5/10

Shastri: The absolute bottom of the barrell, imo... doesnt provide any worthy analysis, spouts cliches endlessly, is terribly biased and stupid (England jealous of the ipl, etc), is boring, and doesnt even provide the "so bad youve gotta laugh at his ineptitude" moments like Jayasuriya
****/10

 

[centurymaker]

rahul dravid > ganguly > manjrekar > shiva = Harsha > shastri > gavaskar

sick of tired of shastri's same old cliches and gavaskar is **** as a comm

Lawry > Chappell > Benuad > Taylor > Slater = Nicholas = Healy

most biased commentary team ever but i think i have grown so used to them that I have somehow stopped disliking them.

Hussain > Atherton > Bumble > Holding > Botham

don't mind anyone here

 

[Daemon]

Have enjoyed listening to Dravid, Ganguly and Colly in this series. Gavaskar tried to be funny at times and failed, but was generally not as bad as in the past. Shastri was also willing to criticize the Indians while both surprisingly commented about the opposition a lot more than usual.

I remember Ishant bowling a good delivery to Compton and Compton did well to play it with soft hands, and instead of drooling all over the good ball by Ishant as they normally do, they talked about how Compton has shown a lot of determination in this series.

Still dislike them, but they were actually tolerable in this series.

Bhogle was an annoying **** as always.

 

[uvelocity]

The Australian Cricketer's Australian did a player poll on various things which was published in today's newspapers.

Here are who the players rate as commentators:

CURRENT PLAYERS:MALE	FEMALE	PAST PLAYERS
Damien Fleming	47%	9%	35%
Shane Warne	43%	25%	30%
Kerry O’Keeffe	27%	10%	30%
James Brayshaw	26%	6%	10%
Richie Benaud	25%	35%	26%
Mark Nicholas	18%	10%	19%
Mark Waugh	18%	5%	14%
Michael Slater	14%	28%	15%
Greg Blewett	13%	7%	8%
Andrew Symonds	13%	6%	3%
Adam Gilchrist	13%	23%	11%
Jim Maxwell	9%	3%	25%
Bill Lawry	7%	5%	10%
Allan Border	7%	0%	6%
Ian Healy	6%	33%	14%
Ian Chappell	6%	9%	17%
Tony Greig	3%	10%	4%
Mark Taylor	4%	18%	15%
Brendan Julian	2%	9%	4%

Geoff Lawson got 0 votes.

heh thats interesting. on the whole not much of a vote of confidence. healy rated highly by the ladies due to his niece no doubt. current players haven't heard of a radio by the looks too

 

[harsh.ag]

Bhogle was an annoying **** as always.

What is it about him? Why is he so utterly useless? Has got an MBA from IIM-A (ranked 11th in the world by FT) ffs... Actually, that might be part of the problem I remember he was interviewing Lillee once, and the great man had to shush him because Bhogle was constantly interrupting him during the answers. Gets excited like a school-kid to be honest.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Satyanash summed up my views as well. Probably would give Ganguly 1 point more and Harsha 1 point less

 

[smash84]

The Australian Cricketer's Australian did a player poll on various things which was published in today's newspapers.

Here are who the players rate as commentators:

CURRENT PLAYERS:MALE	FEMALE	PAST PLAYERS
Damien Fleming	47%	9%	35%
Shane Warne	43%	25%	30%
Kerry O’Keeffe	27%	10%	30%
James Brayshaw	26%	6%	10%
Richie Benaud	25%	35%	26%
Mark Nicholas	18%	10%	19%
Mark Waugh	18%	5%	14%
Michael Slater	14%	28%	15%
Greg Blewett	13%	7%	8%
Andrew Symonds	13%	6%	3%
Adam Gilchrist	13%	23%	11%
Jim Maxwell	9%	3%	25%
Bill Lawry	7%	5%	10%
Allan Border	7%	0%	6%
Ian Healy	6%	33%	14%
Ian Chappell	6%	9%	17%
Tony Greig	3%	10%	4%
Mark Taylor	4%	18%	15%
Brendan Julian	2%	9%	4%

Geoff Lawson got 0 votes.

From this list I really like Benuad and Mark Taylor.

Healy and Benaud very popular among the ladies it seems.

 

[harsh.ag]

From this list I really like Benuad and Mark Taylor.

Healy and Benaud very popular among the ladies it seems.

Yup, surprised Warne's not more popular among the chicas. Greig and Tubby really got the shaft from the guys, didn't they!

 

[smash84]

yeah...am surprised at Taylor being ranked so low.....is pretty decent among the aussie commentators