Worst Commentators

[Mister Wright]

This is probably more for the Aussies, but if anyone knows of any other realy **** commentators - throw 'em in.

The commentator I reckon is the worst is Ian Chappell. For a guy who knows so much about cricket and could give so much insight into the game he spends so much time talking about absolutely nothing.

He can spend over half an hour talking about a batsman's grip or a crack in the pitch, someone in the crowd, anyway you get my drift.

Other candidates - Mark Taylor, Shane Warne, Simon O'Donnell, Mark Nichollas (sp)

We all know who the greatest of all is - Kerry O'Keefe. And I have been impressed with Harsha Bogle (sp?) and Greg Chappell.

 

[Gaijin-san]

Chappell is a mixed bag. He can be pretty fired up sometimes but on the whole is boring, yes. Don't care much for Bill Lawry or Simon O'Donnell either.
Ian Healy, Tony Greig and Richie are the best.

 

[Mister Wright]

Chappell is a mixed bag. He can be pretty fired up sometimes but on the whole is boring, yes. Don't care much for Bill Lawry or Simon O'Donnell either.
Ian Healy, Tony Greig and Richie are the best.

Yeah, I forgot 'Heals' - How could I! :O His excitement at the use of 'Hawk-eye' is unsurpassed.

 

[TendulkarFan]

I've always liked Tony Greig. He is insightful, and his passion is very evident and contagious.

As for the worst, I'd give it to Sohail for utterly biased and mindless commentary. He hardly provides any insight, usually ridicules the umpires for most of the decisions that don't go in his team's favour. As far as I'm concerned, Sohail is miles ahead of the entire world, when it comes to crappy commentary.

 

[mavric41]

I've always liked Tony Greig. He is insightful, and his passion is very evident and contagious.

Tony Greig has all the insight of a blind man. He is consistently wrong in his commentry, extremely biased and always pushes his sports memrobilia at every given chance. He is the worst commentator of any sport in the world.

 

[TendulkarFan]

Tony Greig has all the insight of a blind man. He is consistently wrong in his commentry, extremely biased and always pushes his sports memrobilia at every given chance. He is the worst commentator of any sport in the world.

While I would politely say I am not on the same page as you for most of your post, I strongly disagree with the "worst commentator" part. For that, see the edited version of my post.

 

[Tim]

I cannot stand Tony Grieg.

 

[Craig]

Greig and Shane Warne are annoying. I reckon I could do a pretty good job. Sit there and get paid for speaking about cricket its not to bad for half an hours work every session.

 

[PY]

See Best and Worse Commentator

 

[JohnnyA]

I watched most of the last test with India ... and was bored rigid to be honest. Made me appreciate Channel 4's commentary crew an awful lot more.

Bill Lawry sucks big time. Talk about completely biased. There was one stint were the indians were cruising in the last innings, and Mark Nicholas was praising the gargantuan efforts of Raul Dravid. All Bill Lawry could say was "It aint over yet pal" ... then started harping on about how great Bichel and Williams are ... "one more wicket could turn this game around" ... WHAT? They were getting soundly thrashed ... and had NO penetration at all!

No respect for the opposition whatsoever. WE have our own one sided commentator in Dermot Reeve ... but Reeve has so much life about him, and he respects the opposition.

Listening to the Aussie commentary crew reminder me of the dark days of BBC commentating ... Tony Lewis, Illingworth et al. I used to pray for the half hour when Boycs and Benaud would commentate together.

Cricket seems so much more fast paced on C4. Anyone else get that impression ... which is odd considering the amazing scoring rate of that Aus-Ind test match. I like the fact that C4 bring in the commentry all stars, and listen to who the public like, Ian Smith being a classic example. Slats is pretty good too. Atherton has improved this year ... he bored the hell out of me to start with.

Ian Healy was the one that stood out from the Aussie crew. Really liked him. Used to like Ian Chappell ... but he's become a grumpy old man all of a sudden.

LONG LIVE RICHIE BENAUD!!!!!

 

[Bouncer]

As for the worst, I'd give it to Sohail for utterly biased and mindless commentary. He hardly provides any insight, usually ridicules the umpires for most of the decisions that don't go in his team's favour. As far as I'm concerned, Sohail is miles ahead of the entire world, when it comes to crappy commentary.

U surely have not heard Sarfaraz Nawaz as a commentators, Man i used to turn the TV volume off and turun to Radio commentary whenever he got the mic.
Guy was absolutely Idiot, i remember during one test match he named Sunil Gavaskar (along with Asif Iqbal) the cause of match fixing, While doing commentry for PTV.

 

[Choora]

Tony Greig & NS Sidhu.

 

[age_master]

for mine at the moment

the good:
Benaud
Healy
Taylor
Chapell
M Waugh

the bad:
Grieg
Lawry


awful:
Mark Nicholla


the worst:
Warne

though its pretty tight between warne and nicollas as to who is worse

 

[luckyeddie]

For me, the best two ever were John Arlott and Jonners - Richie is the last from that era so he's my no 1.

Of the modern set, there are many adequate, a few good and a couple I love (Bumble and Aggers) but as for the ones I don't like...

Mark Nocholas by a military mile.

 

[southern man]

Worest: Martin wackadeydoo Crowe

Best: Ian Smith.

 

[Tim]

lol Martin Crowe is so useless, im sure he would have been dropped by now if it weren't for the fact that he was HOD at Sky Sport for Cricket.

I remember he pulled out "Holy blue blazers" once.

 

[bennyr]

The best I have heard:

Brian Johnstone, Jim Maxwell

Honourable mention:

Kerry O'Keefe, Harsha Bhogle, Agnew, Ian Healy, Terry Jenner, Geoff Lawson, Tony Cozier (I have not heard him commentate for some time, so this is based on the Viv Richards days)

Worst:

Mark Taylor, Bill Lawry, David Hookes

Richie Benaud used to be really good but is slowly turning into a doddering fool.

I never heard Arlott commentate, but I have read enough quotes to know he was something special.

 

[Langeveldt]

The best: These are an elite few whom I happen to worship whenever they appear on air...

Kerry o'Keefe
Jonathan Agnew
Graham Fowler
Navjot Singh Sidhu


THE WORST:
Bob Willis - Cricket is quite often very boring, and this guy seems to want to keep it that way..

Henry Blofeld - Stereotypical wittering old fart who makes me cringe... I hope people abroad dont think all Britishers speak and act like this fool...

Mark Nicholas - Patronising, the way he goes on about Flintoff you would think he is the new Bradman, let alone Botham...

 

[Richard]

Personally I don't dislike many commentators. C4, C9, SkySports, Doordarshan, the only ones I've ever watched with any consistency. Never listened to anything except TMS and ABC Radio's cricket program.
I like the lot just about equally. John Arlott and Brian Johnston's status as THE all-time greats is surely undisputed, JA especially. Richie Benaud would be my favourite if I was really pushed, but worst? Not really a decent question, for me.
I think I could do as good a job as any of them, naturally.

 

[marc71178]

Phil Tufnell was on TMS for the first 2 Tests as a guest summariser.

He was excellent, especially when he started talking about Kite flying and the Tooth.