Yet another long post on biased Broadcasting. Missing Harsha Bhogle Geoffrey Boycott
We grew up listening to Harsha Bhogle, Henry Blofeld, Geoffrey
Boycott, Ian Chapel, Richie Benaud, Navjot Sidhu, Sunil Gavaskar, Rameez Raja , and Ravi Shastri. But I am afraid I cannot take names of the last three
commentators in the same breath as I did the other cricketing analysts.
It’s okay if they kill you with their cricketing clichés like
‘In the end, Cricket is the winner’, ‘Form is temporary class is permanent’ etc;
but as a presenter, if you take sides and start expressing them relentlessly in
their views, then the cricket viewing experience is definitely adulterated and
we will be forced to watch the game in mute mode. Here are some of the bloopers
of the big three of Sunny Ravi and Rameez that I can recollect in the recently
concluded VIVO IPL.
a) Eliminator 2, SRH vs GL, Sunny picks Gujarat Lions because
they have as many as six impact players (including Sir Jadeja). He failed to
mention the fact that the famed GL line up came a cropper twice in this very
tournament against SRH bowling attack.
b) Rameez Raja is surprised when more educated and erudite
viewers select SRH as the favorites to play RCB when they voted 61% and somehow
reckoned that home tigers and Wasim led KKR had a better chance to qualify.
c) In the Finals, Warner was dismissed and there were three dot
balls and Sunny Gavaskar goes gung-ho on the air saying “that’s what a wicket
does, it dries up the boundaries” Just after three freaking balls!!!
Befittingly Yuvraj shuts him up by taking on the RCB’star bowler for a four and
a six in the very next over and a boundary in the beginning of another over.
d) Ravi Shastri, when Shane Watson starts the penultimate over
with two wides and follows it up with two dot balls “This has been an
exceptional over so far by Watson, it has pulled back the SRH”. Expectedly
Watto concedes a four and a six in the remainder of the over along with few
singles to take the tally of the ‘exceptional over’ to 16.
e) Rameez Raja in the Studio. These are two contrasting teams;
“RCB is a balanced side, while SRH is riding on the high of a one-man army, its
leader, David Warner”. One man army Rameez?? What about the purple cap holder,
the emerging player of the IPL, big-game player Yuvraj, all-rounders, and MOTMs
of Semi-Finals and Finals, Henriques and Cutting, Shikhar Dhawan, and useful
contributions when it mattered from Deepak Hooda and Naman Ohja?
f) Sunil Gavaskar when the big three were dismissed, Rahul
Watson & Abdulla also gone and Chris Jordan was batting and his sitter was
dropped by Sran, Sunny exclaims “Did he just drop the Cup” Yes Sunny!! drop the
cup when the entire starlet of RCB is back in the hut and an innocuous Jordan’s
sitter was dropped and SRH drops the cup. Sunny Leone would have done more
justice to his role there.
g) Watch for the reaction of Sunny when the two Ws were
dismissed. The spirits that soared high when Warner was dismissed were depleted
when Watson bowed out.
h) Finally when an improbable 37 were needed off 18 or something
like that, Sunny still exclaims, “it’s not impossible, it has been done before”
That could have been the final nail in the coffin for a logical
viewer, who relishes quality commentary as an integral part of cricket viewing
experience. We had to bank on Danny Morrison, Pommie MBangwa, and Mathew Hayden
and even Sanjay Manjrekar and Sidhu back in the studios and Sameer and Gaurav
the anchors to get sanity to proceedings from these prejudiced views of the
biggest scars of Indian Cricket, Gavaskar, and Shastri ably supported by their
stooge, Raja.
In his younger and more refined days as a commentator, Sunny
always used to say that he likes boundaries which keep the fielder interested
till the end as he gets tired by chasing it. In a similar manner, I’m very glad
that SRH did not knock their opponents out with a knockout punch but slowly and
gradually decimated their challenge thereby killing the hopes of these
misfiring commentators as many times.
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