Of Sanjay Manjrekar and L.Sivaramakrishnan

The new Indian cricket commentator in English. 

Of the second tier of Indian commentators in English, comprising mostly of cricketers who played for India since 1990, Sanjay Manjrekar and L.Sivaramakrishnan have the most exposure.

Of course Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Navjot Singh Sidhu all appear in the commentator’s studio from time to time, but none of them have done series after series consistently. In case of the first three, mostly it seems like that they are recently retired and still value the family time that they have been able to get, and that having being been some of the highest paid Indian cricketers of the last decade, they do not need the remunerative aspect of commentating. VVS also makes mistakes in English, but its hard to dislike that or make any issue with that because his enthusiasm comes through and makes you smile (and of course its not our first language so grammar can go take a hike).

Sidhu of course, was the original star of the this 2^nd generation of commentators, the progenitor of bad jokes; he has had to pay a huge price for his popularity as TV studios have swooped in to put him up in reality TV in a big way – almost to the extent of ruining his political career.

Akash Chopra and  Murali Kartik have recently started appearing in Ten/Neo sports cricket coverage – but those are basically cut price outfits which are not willing to pay anything for a decent producer to direct the show - the conversations don’t seem go anywhere, and the quality of coverage suggests that it had been recorded on second hand 80s equipment.  Akash Chopra of course also now taps into the Cricinfo mega network, and now Murali has managed to get into 2014-15 Border Gavaskar commentary.

But Sanjay - he is really maturing as a commentator. I think the best thing is that he has been given the hard task of introducing each random commercial segment of the pre-post match shows. Where he has to say Lava Super Fours. And he is almost apologetic when he has to say - with a twisted smile, and an odd way of putting it forth. He is self effecaing enough about his own record, especially when Ganguly and Dravid are around (though he is much more senior a cricketer). And he is not pompous. Thats what I hate about Ganguly. Sanjay and Dravid together are a delight - both probably the most technically correct batsmen ever produced by India, and both are the least likely to fault any other batsmen on technical aspects; always leaving space in their comments to be not absolutely hard on anyone.

What helps Sanjay is I think his years of producing cricket compilation videos. He learnt the art of looking directly into a camera and speaking to a viewer, which is not something the rest have mastered yet - maybe Ravi Shastri and Harsha Bhogle. The rest want to talk to each other. In their living room.

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Siva - I am thankful that Siva is not doing as much commentary now  as he used to. What a terrible speaker. If his accent wasn't bad enough, his descriptions, his manner - everything. Am sure we have more English speaking ex-cricketeers than him. W.V. Raman and others who do Ranji games are so much better. Worst. Piss offs.

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[To be completed]

Dhoni eulogies | Harsha speaks something new

 Harsha Bhogle sometimes suffers from over exposure. This is especially true during any cricket series played in India, where he is in the com box, in the post match presentation, in the papers each day, and is more or less a big celebrity himself.  

Rare is the scene then when Harsha speaks something which sounds new, or which has not been noticed before. All his sentences start “I/you/one gets the feeling that...da da da”. When one starts talking about feelings, the stage is set wide open for all sorts of things.

So it is one rare instance in this article on Dhoni (http://www.starsports.com/cricket/columns/columnist=126/articleid=1374417/index.html) that he actually had an insight: “That is why he liked one-day cricket. It has two logical ends. If you can’t take 10 wickets, you squeeze out 50 overs. In the last couple of years, as bats grew bigger, as end overs hitting became more sophisticated, he struggled there too because his team didn’t take enough wickets early on. But at least you could outscore the opposition over 50 overs. In Test cricket, he couldn’t do that. So India increasingly looked like a side that waited for the opposition to set the game. It was different in India where he had the surfaces that allowed his bowlers to dominate.”

That Dhoni has been suffering in ODIs because the rules and bats and the contests in ODIs have been diluted. That Dhoni (probably like all other captains) does not enjoy the new ODI rules. That India has not been doing well enough in ODIs as well. Will update this with some stats later. But Dhoni's  recent discomfort in ODIs is well noted Harsha; and is something to watch out for given the World Cup 2015.

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With regards to Harsha - maybe going abroad helps him. A little away from adulation. and little more of radio commentary where you have to look at the game differently.

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My main worry is that I am not really doing what Dhoni is telling me to do. Dhoni is about living in the present. About doing things. I read somewhere that he doesn’t sit and watch full matches, has never done. If Dhoni is inspirational then what are we doing sitting here and watching full matches, discussing, analysing, and more or less wasting our times.

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as an unabashed Dhoni fan, bunch of mixed feelings. Unhappy that he never got the bowlers to correct the overseas record. Happy that he doesn't have to endure the taunting of Kohli captaincy fans (who will soon see that captaincy without the required bowlers, or benevolent declaring opposing captains is not as much fun). Happy that he got to get out on his own terms - no press conference, no bullshit, like he always has lived his life. And happy that he still has some of the best overall test captaincy records for an Indian captain, and some of the best wicketkeeping records, and managed to work his batsmanship enough to be counted as one of the leading wicketkeeping-batsmen of all time.

Now lets see what he brings to the WC. I have a feeling that it is going to bring a Imran Khan style take no prisoners campaign at the world cup. ‪#‎dhoniretires‬

Dear Pat Symcox,

If you sue Nimbus and drag the BCCI to court as well, I will forget the fact that I have hated you for ten years. If you win, I will get a life-size cutout made of you, and sleep with it. That's at night. During the day, that cutout will be in the special Symcox-pooja room, with your recorded whiny voice playing, till it is time for me to go to sleep again.
Excited,
SOCF

Underrated Achiever

The Indian tour of Australia is nearly at the end of its enthralling journey just as I am about to embark on a historic voyage of my own. I am about to start writing on the one acommon religion of a billion Indians – CRICKET. The cricket lover in me has finally smiled after seeing a new generation take small yet confident steps on the big playground. It has been a pleasure watching the Indian team, post- Melbourne test, perform in Australia. The seniors have pulled their weight and more importantly, the youngsters, especially in the Commonwealth Bank ODI series, have shown that there is much to hope for in the coming future. Therefore, there is no more perfect time for me to start writing about cricket.

But, now that the tour is coming to an end, it is with a degree of sadness that I watch the youngsters perform. The reason is that, in a matter of weeks, ESPN-STAR is going to bid farewell to telecasting live cricket to the Indian audience, at least until the ill-fated Asia cup in June. Along with ESPN-STAR, a very familiar voice will stop taking centre stage at four in the morning- HARSHA BHOGLE. For the last couple of months, Harsha’s voice has been,invariably, my morning wake up call whether discussing the umpiring issues or the vagaries of the climate. It has been delightfully refreshing to see that the oomph factor is not a pre-requisite to being a successful broadcaster. With Harsha anchoring the show, the toss and the pitch report become important events. Aimless chatter and bosom hugging sarees are replaced by a sensible discussion on the Tendulkar phenomenon and the Perth triumph. The most sensible cricketing show that I have seen in the last six moths has been his “Harsha Online” series and especially the episode starring Adam Gilchrist, just after the Sydney fiasco. That particular episode was special as two of cricket’s most vaunted gentlemen – one of the playing fraternity, the other of the media family, discussed on cricket with evident mutual respect, showing that cricket still retains its decency, despite the unwanted mudslinging we saw at Sydney.

Harsha Bhogle has been the face of ESPN-STAR’s cricket broadcasts for well over a decade and has become an absolutely integral ingredient to ESPN-STAR’s continued excellence on the cricket front. What has been wonderful to see is his measured approach to anchoring the show. While several questions are clichés in the telecast field, so often the way you put it across the table or even the timing of the question could make a whale of a difference in the impact it generates. That has been a quality that Bhogle has displayed adequately and efficiently. This is not forgetting Harsha’s commentating skills. Partnered with an ex-international star, like Geoffrey Boycott, Bhogle has been adept at describing the cricket and also bringing in the star’s expertise at the same time, thus adding to the show in general. There are several other arrows up Bhogle’s quiver. To me, his blogs on ESPN-STAR website have been the most eagerly awaited ones. When he writes, one suddenly finds the trams of Kolkata and the tons by Kallis in the same paragraph. Neither looks out of place, each in fact adding to the reading experience. Harsha’s writings have made me dream about England in June, about the magic of reading Rohit Brijnath, his friend Geoffrey Boycott and the real story behind the leopard which was a part of the ESPN studio during the 2003 South Africa world cup. There is a superb control of the language and the metaphors he uses mesmerizes you and reminds you of your old English teacher.

But, to me Harsha Bhogle stands for a man who has lived his boyhood dream. Like Bollywood for the 1970’s, cricket has been the ultimate drug for the Y2K generation. It has given dreams of being multi-millionaires sporting designer shades and having svelte girls on either side. But, more often than not, people fall by the way side. The aspiring young fourteen year old prodigy becomes a satisfied graduate at twenty two and a happy corporate employee at twenty five. Cricket takes a back seat, becoming something to be seen on the television, the old cricket bat has been discarded. But, it is here that Harsha Bhogle has been different. It is difficult for us to imagine an Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad graduate to try for the job of a cricket commentator. Yet, Harsha did it in order to pursue a childhood dream. Harsha Bhogle is an example of a man willing to sacrifice a fruitful career in the quest of a distant dream. That to me is his real legacy, the real source of inspiration he provides to me.

Today, as I try to write about that modern opium - Cricket, there is no better source of inspiration than Harsha Bhogle for daring to dream when many would have rested on their laurels. This blog is a tribute to the likes of Harsha, the underrated achievers in and off the cricket field.

Is that why he was such a bad commentator?

Sometime stunning talent, one of India's many men-who-could-have-been-Bedi's, former coach in the Dilli circles, last man out in the last Tied Test, and now an NDPS accused. Wasn't he an umpire as well before he became such a bad commentator - in English and Hindi?

Stupid panelists who answer stupid questions

Kris Srikkanth, Waqar Younis, Ajay Jadeja and Sidhu are part of an increasing army of 'experts' who have been asked, "Should Sachin Tendulkar become captain of India again?"

Of all the stupid knee-jerk reactions that our media (and our vast never-ending resource of armchair-critics-who-think-they-should-be-fielding-at-point) could have come up with, this 'pertinent' question deserves the greatest trophy.

On the one hand, there a few sensible panelists and actual experts (with ISI mark - no, not Javed Miandad, ha ha) who want the right questions to be asked after the exit from the World cup. On the other, there is an all pervasive inability to raise the right issues. It seems most of India would rather believe in hype without exercising any grey cells, and without getting their flannels dirty.

The captaincy was quite obviously not the primary reason. But in a few more days, the calls for Dravid's head would have become so shrill, nobody would have any option.

"Obviously, Sachin should be captain!" - K Srikkanth, Member, World Champion Indian Team, 1983.