Rank your country's commentary team

[Jono]

Bhogle is simple.

Is good on radio, **** on TV.

Was awesome when he wasn't in the BCCI's pocket, he now is.

Went from an 8/10 radio to 3/10 TV commentator.

 

[Shri]

Forgot to add Manjrekar. Might well be the best Indian commentator around. Was awesome in the match point segment on cricinfo and his technical knowledge is pretty impressive.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Manjrekar before match point was as bad as Gavaskar, Shastri et al.

Now he's better than pretty much everyone except Dravid

I'm glad, because I did like some of the stuff he'd written before and felt he wasn't as stupid as he seemed in the combox.

 

[Spark]

I know I am in the vast minority (maybe the only one) on here but I really like Brayshaw.

I find Brayshaw inoffensive these days more than anything. Easily ignored.

EDIT: Agree with those who really liked Bhogle on radio, was excellent last time down here.

 

[kyear2]

can somebody from india please rate sidhu a 0 for me? he just said that the crowd is "dancing like popcorn on a hot fire"

This please.

 

[SJS]

can somebody from india please rate sidhu a 0 for me? he just said that the crowd is "dancing like popcorn on a hot fire"

To rate Siddhu at zero would be giving him more than he deserves. He is the pits.

 

[Viscount Tom]

His voice is one that would drive people to murder.

Have it in for Bloefeld as well just irks me.

Don't mind Boycott but hes best used in small doses.

 

[fredfertang]

The only Kiwi commentator worth his salt is Jeremy Coney.

I'll have to take your word for it on the comparison, but when Coney has been on TMS he has been superb

 

[Burgey]

The story of how Bhogle got his start commentating is such a great tale.

Interesting reading the reviews of Mark Nicholas. When the ODD matches were on early this summer he was commentating without a hard-on and his analysis of the technical side of the game was actually first rate. If he concentrated on that instead of trying to hype up the game when there's no need (ie, never because there are others he works with who do that) he would actually be very good IMO.

 

[hendrix]

Yeah, with Bogle, Nicholas and possibly Ian Smith and Sanjay Manjrekar, I think they feel a compulsive need to fill the gaps. When they're writing or talking about cricket they can just dedicate themselves to pure descriptiveness, which is great. But when people can see what's happening on TV, there's really no need to describe what's going on so they just start with either verbal diarrhoea (Bogle) or incessant and frankly embarrassing asslicking (Nicholas).

 

[Ruckus]

Richie Benaud - 4: Was the best, is now pretty senile. Probs shouldn't be commentating still.

Bill Lawry - 7: Quite like Bill. He doesn't add much insight into the game but brings excitement to it, which is more than half the job done.

Ian Chappell - 6.5: Pretty good insight most of the time, but has a bit of a boring drawl.

Mark Taylor - 7: Decent insight, decent excitement, but is too 'wholesome, family fun' for my liking.

Ian Healy - 3: Annoys the **** out of me. Comes across as an absolute try-hard. Only redeeming quality is when he actually provides good insight into his own craft of wicketkeeping.

Shane Warne - 6 : I don't mind him most of the time, and he has some interesting stuff to say about the game, but he is awful when he starts going off on unrelated tangents or goes on the defensive.

Mark Nicholas - 4: Annoys me, but less so than Healy. Tries too hard, and his sycophancy towards the Australian team really grates me for some reason.

Michael Slater - 5: Ok all-round, but is a bit of an bonehead and gets too biased and emotional a lot of the time.

James Brayshaw - 0: Total blokey garbage. No insight, bad voice, no redeeming qualities.

Tony Greig - A bit quiet these days.

 

[Bahnz]

Ian Smith 6/10 - a solid pair of hands (excuse the pun) in the leadership role, even if he isn't shy of letting everyone know who his favourites are (have we confirmed that Ross Taylor is his god son?)
Mark Richardson 4/10 - would probably score higher if it wasn't for his execrable performances on The Crowd Goes Wild.
Craig McMillan 1/10 - needs Danny Morrison to make him look decent. That just about says it all.
Simon Doull 7/10 - in spite of what a few posters on here seem to think, I find Doull quite likeable, and he's also pretty solid on the technical aspects of bowling.
Francis Payne 0/10 - a voice made for silent cinema.

 

[veteran-80s]

Has anyone ever heard Imran comment? How was he?

Imran used to speak like he is still captaining the team. You knew he had complete command over what he was talking about - for example, during the Spring 1999 Sharjah Tournament, he was commentating in the final and pointing out some points about Venkatesh Prasad's bowling but he was talking more like a captain selecting his bowlers for the match than like a commentator. Overall not bad. The novelty factor alone was good enough. I personally enjoyed his commentary having grown up watching him as my favourite cricketer.

 

[JontyPanesar]

Anyway, my rankings for NZ:

Danners Danny Morrison - 0/10 HYPERBOLE!!! MAXIMUM!!! AGHHGIYFA(TR*FIHV! **** OFF.
Simon Doull - 4/10 Occasionally says something insightful. Generally full of ****.
Craig McMillan - 2/10 Stick to coaching. Adds nothing.
Ian Smith - 2/10 It'd be preferable to have the old (and dead) Rhodie in the commentary box, because Smithy is full of trite soundbites and bugger all else. Frankly, he's better as a sideline rugby guy.
Mark Richardson - 5/10 Cynical but acceptable. Has a beguiling sense of gallows humour at times which suits the currently risible NZ cricket team
Shane Bond - X/10 Bland bland bland. Hard to score someone who says nothing.

We talk about t20 cricket ruining batsmen and bowlers, but I think it also ruins commentators like Doull and Morrison. Morrison isn't a total moron despite striving to sound like one nowadays

 

[Prince EWS]

Forgot to add Manjrekar. Might well be the best Indian commentator around. Was awesome in the match point segment on cricinfo and his technical knowledge is pretty impressive.

I think this just goes to show that the standard of commentary for many commentators probably depends more on the role they've been given and the audience they're playing to. The Bhogle radio/TV thing that Jono brought up is an another example. People watching match companion videos on cricinfo are a much, much more refined audience than the wide net TV broadcasters are trying to cast, and this counts for double when it comes to Indian commentators because they're ever so gagged by the BCCI on various issues, so Manjrekar comes across much better to diehard fans like us when he does the cricinfo thing.

Michael Slater is another example; he was great on Foxtel when he was givien a freer reign to talk shop on a subscription channel only covering domestic games, but Channel Nine have giving him the extremely annoying role (from a personal perspective obv) of bridging the game to the younger audience and hyping up the excitement value of players like Warner. He's worth so much more than that as an analyst but Nine don't need another analyst for ratings purposes. Even Mark Nicholas seemed much more insightful when he had a lead role as a technical commentator in the England/Australia A game - again, slightly different audience and a different role for him with a lot of the commentators sitting out.

 

[Daemon]

The worst part is I think the broader audience would actually lap up all the in depth analysis.

 

[smash84]

Very small commentary team from Pakistan and none of them is too flash

Wasim 6/10 Brings interesting points regarding fast bowling and the general outlook of teams. Also has pretty good anecdotes to share
Waqar 5/10 Same as above but minus the anecdotes
Ramiz 5/10 Lots of variation in his commentary. Sometimes he is decent with a little bit of insights on the game and other times quite **** so an average score.

@Agent, yes have heard Imran comment. He isn't very exciting in the commentary box but adds a lot of value in terms of his reading of the game which is very good. You can grab some of his commentary if you see the highlights of the Pak-WI 1993 series that Rob has uploaded

 

[benchmark00]

Andre loves Manjrekar.

 

[Jono]

Really do wonder if Andre would change his mind now though, considering Manjrekar is analysing the game moreso than he ever did previously.

 

[ankitj]

Has anyone ever heard Imran comment? How was he?

He doesn't do commentary much, does he? I do remember in 1996 world cup he was in the box during the famous Prasad/Sohail incident. It was hilarious how Imran went from "he's very good competitor" to "quite unnecessary" in space of one ball.

Imran doesn't come across as very nuteral or impassionate whenever I have heard him on talk shows.