When you are paid to commentate just commentate. This very important mantra is forgotten by many of our cricket gurus who take to air only to moan and groan.
Sanjay Manjrekar had no business to call Mumbai Indians’ batsman Kieron Pollard ‘brainless”. Whether the mentioned West Indian has sufficient grey matter or lacks it is not for Mr Manjrekar to decide. His job is to describe the game and if Pollard did make a mistake, then just point it out. Keep personalities out.
Pollard gave a fitting reply on social media and Manjrekar deserved that. Manjrekar, of course, subsequently denied that he said such a thing. But then…
Getting former cricketers to commentate is admirable and their insight enhances the viewing experience. But we don’t want them to give us technical gibberish and unsound explanations just to bring down a player. Or go green with envy on air.
There are often some moments during cricket when the game progresses without any excitement or incident. These moments have to be enlivened by the commentators. The smart ones like former England cricketers David Lloyd, Ian Botham and David Gower know how to cope with that.
They spin anecdotes or add some humour or give us a valuable insight into the game.
Sorry, but former Indian players and other commentators, barring a handful, spew forth venom against the players they ‘don’t like’ on air.
Listening to them one wonders why they did not become a Sachin Tendulkar or a Shane Warne with all the technical knowledge and expertise they claim to possess.
Therein lies the truth. Many of these experts had ordinary records during their playing days. Some never played at all. They convert the ‘chip on the shoulder’ into an ‘axe to grind’.
So being Mr Know-It-All on television only helps them to get unnecessary attention and compensate for their own inadequacies.
They get sadistic pleasure by criticising those who are not the chosen ones. One former cricketer, who considers himself an expert of experts, makes his partiality towards Ravindra Jadeja clear by praising the former to heavens and by putting down Ravichandran Ashwin every time.
He resorts to quoting Ashwin’s so-called poor record abroad and says he will be challenged by Jadeja.
And some cricket-mad fans in India will believe him. He’d better shut up.
We don’t want a ‘faIled’ ex-player to pronounce judgements on of the best all-rounders in the world. And statistics only lie.
There is another commentator who never played top cricket in his life and has verbal diarrhoea every time he takes to the mike. He describes everything in a “false” British accent, which jars the nerves, without full stops.
He forgets that people are watching on television and can see what is happening and don’t need silly descriptions.
Thankfully there is a Sunny Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who give us listening pleasure with their knowledge and experience. They know when to talk, what to talk and when to shut up.
Thank God for these little mercies. And also for the remote control which has a convenient mute button to ward off pure poison.
*The views expressed in this column are the Authors.
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