Best(current) commentators

[Riggins]

Healy actually uses "we" for the Australian team on the park while commentating. It's his full-time gig ffs, not a guest spot. Ridiculous guy.

That actually doesn't bother me that much, I mean the guy is Australian, and played for the team for 15 years or whatever, regardless of what his job is now. Him identifying as Australian on the air isn't the problem, it's that he's a complete ****wit about everything else.

 

[Antihippy]

Yeah impartiality is not the problem for commentators.You can be impartial and provide good insights

The problem is when they start talking about dirty rotten pizzas or nerds vs hoolios/julios/whatever ****ing nonsense they are spouting.

 

[Johnners]

Yup, Warnes problem isn't homerism, it's that he's a self centered asshat who too often is more interested in talking about Shane Warne and random crap that has sfa to do with cricket.

 

[Marius]

In South Africa cricket is broadcast on the state broadcaster, SABC, and Supersport, on satellite television.

SABC's commentators are pretty dire. Makhaya Ntini and Herschelle Gibbs are both pretty bad, but Neil Manthorp redeems them somewhat. Peter Kirsten also commentates for SABC but I think he only does the radio stuff, but he's also pretty good. Knows the game and is very enthusiastic.

I like all the Supersport commentators to be honest, for the WI series we had Haysman, Ackerman, Shaun Pollock, Wessels, Mbangwa, and Holding. My brother can't stand Pommie but I like him. Sometimes he states the obvious but he also knows the game and doesn't get over-excited.

 

[Athlai]

Jeets mustn't be far away from entering commentary. Will be the greatest day of his career.

 

[Flem274*]

Will be great when he gets asked how a spinner goes about taking test wickets and he shrugs his shoulders.

 

[Athlai]

Will be great when he gets asked how a spinner goes about taking test wickets and he shrugs his shoulders.

He'd probably answer with 'by playing in England', either that or reminisce about his rank full toss to Chanderpaul.

 

[Flem274*]

Tbf I'm surprised bowlers don't use the full toss as a sucker ball more often. How often does it get hit straight to a fielder?

 

[ImpatientLime]

athers is in an absolute league of his own these days, be it behind the mic or with the pen.

absolutely despise nicholas. will you guys down there just give him a ****ing passport already.

 

[andmark]

I can actually tolerate Nick Knight an awful lot more than I used to be able to. PEWS said it a while back but he is actually ok when it comes to limited overs cricket, primarily because unlike a fair few that work for Sky he is actually interested in the format.

Despite all that, having him in the bests and Bob and Dravid in the worst is just deeply confusing.

I like Nick Knight. He always seems interested in the game, even if it is some unknown county match which few people care about. He always provides decent analysis as well. An all-round like-able guy imo.

I can only judge Dravid by his commentary on Sky and TMS during the 2013 England vs India series and he was dreadful. At the Lords test I was prepared to consider that his surroundings (i.e the glamour and pomp of a Lords test and the Queen's visit) may have just been bringing the lesser side of him out, but he repeated it at the other grounds. Just so boring and personality-less. Bob on the other hand is flat out send-you-to-sleep boring. He rarely says anything positive and is all too willing to rant for an hour if he could. I was actually tempted to put him in the "best" category because his rants can actually be quite hilarious. But either way, his personality doesn't match what you'd expect from someone who had long hair and named themselves after Bob Dylan

 

[NasserFan207]

Warne is my favourite commentator to listen to when a spinner is bowling. Every other time he's ****e.

Similar opinion on Gavaskar, he's great when talking about opening batters, **** all else. Agree on Dravid too btw, seems a really nice guy but he's boring as **** to listen to, and waaay too neutral.

 

[slowfinger]

The guy who said 'Man on the moon we have a visitor!' On the IPL, I always enjoy listening to him, although his IPL commentating is always peak.

I also enjoy Nasser and Holding, don't really rate Strauss, Warney's entertaining as well...

Bob Willis and Jeremy Coney always have interesting points to share and Ilike the way they speak their minds...

 

[GotSpin]

Warne is serious quality sometimes. Other times, he just completely loses it.

 

[Spark]

Cannot understand how Dravid is boring. Sharp, intelligent cricketing analysis with a sharp sense of humour. Doesn't have a great voice but **** me we have too many overexcited kids in commentary these days, a bit of sobriety is no bad thing.

 

[BeeGee]

Could just be the most famous worldwide commentators, so we may see some people who are popular but more learned cricket fans generally find them pretty poor.

Exhibit A:

 

[otagoman]

I've been waiting to see Danny Morrison and Navjot Singh Sindhu commentate together

 

[hendrix]

With former players the problem is that the intelligent ones won't want to be commentators. Stephen Fleming and Vettori have pretty much insinuated that. There's the odd gem like Nasser but I genuinely think you're better off picking cricket fans than former players.

 

[Athlai]

There are three different reasons to enjoy a commentator IMO, the primary focus for a lot of CWers is seemingly cricket analysis. The second is banter, where you are enjoying the commentator for their own "action" rather than what they are lending to the game itself. I personally enjoy quality banter a lot and always look forward to commentary duos or trios that interact in an amusing way. A quick example of this would be about 2-3 years ago, Doully and Richardson were overall poorer in the commentary box than they are now, but when paired together turned into a cheerleader of bowling vs. a cheerleader of batting. Regardless of who was on the field at the time, the line was drawn for those two at who had the ball and who was holding the bat. It was always worth a chuckle.
The third and probably least important is the sound of their voice. Some people are easier to listen to just by the tone and mannerisms they have when speaking. I remember Michael Holding singing me sweetly to sleep many times while watching England home Tests a few years back.

So where do you ****s put your priorities?

I'm all about the banter, and probably see cricket analysis and the voice about equal as a secondary factor in my enjoyment of cricket commentary.

 

[ajdude]

absolutely despise nicholas. will you guys down there just give him a ****ing passport already.

it's weird how **** he is on tv but i tend to enjoy reading his articles on cricinfo.

ND Sidhu has the most soothing voice of all time apart from Isa Guha. don't even care what they have to say holy **** it's relaxing

 

[Bahnz]

Although he's no longer doing it for obvious reasons, I always loved Martin Crowe's radio commentary. In terms of cricket analysis, I can't think of too many better commentators anywhere. His style on the radio is also more toned down, less cliche-riddled and more gregarious and charming than it was during his Sky TV work. It was a real pleasure listening to his calling of the NZ v India test at Eden Park last year. I'm really hoping that if he's well enough an arrangement will be made to have him providing radio commentary for the World Cup games hosted in Auckland this year.