*Officlal* Commentary Praise Thread

[Burgey]

Part of that was there was a lot more ODI Cricket being played for the first time. Only so much dough to go around for people and it was novel. Plus Australia was dross for a lot of the decade after the big three retired in early 84.

Then from the mid-90s Australia reached number one and Warne came along. That coincided with tests becoming popular again.

 

[S.Kennedy]

BT must be sick of their lives right now, having out-bid Sky for a whopping sum and found in their possession two dead rubbers nobody will watch.

 

[S.Kennedy]

I think with Packer the cat was out of the bag in the sense that suddenly a lot of people - players, administrators, broadcasters - saw you can make a tremendous amount of money from this weird Victorian game of ours.

It is unbelievable how the whole Packer thing is depicted through the lens of Grieg/Chappell propaganda. Following the rapprochement between Australian Board and Packer, Australian cricket was basically placed in the hands of PBL Marketing. The Australian players actually revolted against PBL Marketing who now had reduced the Australian Board to absolute servility to the extent that they could draw up fixtures and even (they at least attempted this) dictate team selections! This is completely forgotten about now amidst all the Packer hagiography. Basically the players became as annoyed with Packer as they were with the Board in the 1970s.

 

[Spark]

As strange as it was to see the post-match relegated to GEM, it was at least much less cringeworthy this time around, having dumped the "cameras in the dressing room" bullshit.

 

[Starfighter]

I think with Packer the cat was out of the bag in the sense that suddenly a lot of people - players, administrators, broadcasters - saw you can make a tremendous amount of money from this weird Victorian game of ours.

I'm not sure the players made a 'tremendous' amount of money at all. Otherwise the Rebel Tours and pay disputes wouldn't have happened. And that's only for Australians, I don't think anything really changed at all in England or other countries.

 

[S.Kennedy]

I'm not sure the players made a 'tremendous' amount of money at all. Otherwise the Rebel Tours and pay disputes wouldn't have happened. And that's only for Australians, I don't think anything really changed at all in England or other countries.

As I said, the cat was out the bag. I'm not saying every cricketer in every country immediately got a price hike after World Series Cricket folded, and as seen in pay disputes in the West Indies and unprecedented pay-puts in the IPL, this thing is an ongoing thing.

 

[S.Kennedy]

On the BBC's podcast Butcher mentions how Warne was slagging off O' Keefe in Pune, saying 'he was the worst bowler in the world', and the rest of the commentary team were laughing their heads off when O' Keefe picked up wickets.

BBC Radio 5 live - 5 live Sport, The Tuffers and Vaughan Cricket Show, 'England have been thoroughly outplayed and walloped' - Tufnell

 

[Midwinter]

Hugh Jackman was good as the celebrity guest, he knows his cricket.

He was aware of the "circus act" that commentors have to put on, but didn't play along.

 

[Burgey]

See, this sort of analysis by Slats is ****ing gold. Now he’ll head to the commentary box and cheer lead for six hours.

 

[_Ed_]

See, this sort of analysis by Slats is ****ing gold. Now he’ll head to the commentary box and cheer lead for six hours.

Exactly. When I first heard his commentary 10-12 years ago, I thought he was great.

 

[stephen]

That's the thing. Most of the commentators have got the ability to commentate well. It's only when they decent into the blokesy banter that they suck. Unfortunately they make that decent as soon as they step foot into the box.

 

[Burgey]

No doubt they’re told to dumb it down.

Slats’ taking down Vince’s technique this morning was ****ing top shelf.

 

[stephen]

No doubt they’re told to dumb it down.

Slats’ taking down Vince’s technique this morning was ****ing top shelf.

It was clear that's what the Aussie bowlers were targeting as well. Bird in particular was after the lbw vs Vince nearly every ball.

 

[cnerd123]

No doubt they’re told to dumb it down.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is exactly what's happening.

There is that sort of patronising view that cricket administrators hold of the watching public - 'Oh no, they find low scoring games boring, they need 4s and 6s' , 'oh no, they find 5 days too long, we must shorten it' , 'oh no, they find all these stats to confusing, we must reduce how many numbers are show on the screen', and it's really killing the game by constantly dumbing it down further and further to the point where it's just unwatchable, and then when people don't watch it they further assume it's because it's still too complicated, and they dumb it down further.

I'm fairly certain if commentators stopped bantering and spent more time analysing pitch maps, field positions, batting and bowling techniques, statistics, etc that people might actually find cricket to be a lot more interesting and entertaining than they do right now.

 

[stephen]

Was a knock on in rugby league but that's a catch. Didn't touch the ground.

 

[Deleted member 34141]

Overall I don’t listen to much commentary, usually have my headphones.

Michael Vaughan should ideally be the England coach. I wasn’t sure at first, there is a good sense of cricket and also a diplomatic presence there.
Ricky Ponting, when he talks find myself listening and he makes me think more about cricket in general.

Those two would have to be my favourites.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Haha, what a contrast. Bring in Boycott for half an hour before tea, and since tea having Athers join the Channel Nine team.

 

[KungFu_Kallis]

And then... the Victoria old boys club takes over

 

[morgieb]

Why were Boycott and Atherton on comms?

 

[Gnske]

That whole day was weird comms-wise. Like Channel 9 just grabbed anyone they could to throw on appearances for the folks.

The good news is, I bet you a good dollar we get the PM in the comms box for the Sydney test.