Cricket and Commentators

Cricket and Commentators.

Just read Aamir Khans blog and was intrigued by what he had written on 3rd June in the post titled “The Great Sachin”
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The match last night was certainly exciting but what made it a unique experience for me was that I had Sachin next to me. You will find this hard to believe but Sachin was able to predict every ball before it was bowled. “He is going to bowl a bouncer next”, “This one is going to be a slower one”, “Full tilt outside the off stump”, “and Next one will be a yorker”,“ Short of length”. It was uncanny. HE GOT IT RIGHT EACH TIME!!! No wonder its so difficult to bowl to him. He has an amazing instinct. And he told me his logic for each prediction which I won’t share with you as I don’t want to reveal how his mind works. But all of us were dumbfounded with his instinct and his acumen. So at the end of it I told him next time we watch a film together I’m going to tell him what’s going to happen next!
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This was a revelation. We have grown up on Sachin and have followed his rise to the pinnacle of cricketing glory. However these are some things which is not known to the public and it can only be theorized and anticipated. We will know for sure that he would know tremendously more about the game than any of us – but the fact that he can actually get into the minds of the players and give such kool insights is very exciting.

I am just waiting for the day when he becomes a cricket analyst and commentator. Just imagine what kind of interest he can bring to the game by his analysis and insights into the happenings on the field. This surely would be a welcome break from the current commentary levels.

In India almost every guy knows the nitty gritty of the game and can very well understand the basics and the happenings on his/her TV screen . But it is a sad state of affairs that the current breed of TV commentators fail to understand this and dish out their ‘sparkles of wisdom’ again and again through their microphones and we as sorry spectators are victimized to all this.

The IPL has been a success and has brought to light some facts which were not in the open earlier.
India has tremendous talent which has not yet been tapped
Indians and Pakistanis and Australians can play together in a team etc

Apart from the above , the audience was bombarded with 40 days of incessant commentary , from the so-called cricket experts ! We might not have noticed it earlier as the games were spread over , but the IPL has clearly brought out the fact that we are lacking good commentators and lacking BIG time.

Radio commentary is probably the toughest as you have to create the aura of the game in the listeners mind. Initially the transition from Radio to TV was not smooth , the commentators felt the need to describe the happenings on TV in full detail, forgetting the fact that now the audience can SEE !
This still hasn’t been understood by them over all these years .. and now they even go a step further by actually READING out statistics written on screen .

And to add insult to injury they give out some priceless gems by the way of analysis .

I am just jotting down a few which comes to my mind and right now I am watching the India –Pak Kitply cup final and needless to say most of them are being heard right now.

Category :
‘Expert Insights’

• It isn’t over till it’s over.


• The only way to slow down the run rate is to get a couple of wickets.


• They need a 4 in every over to cover up.


• Suddenly the match seems to be evenly balanced


• Everything can change in one over.


• He needs to bowl the Yorker now .


• They need to rotate the strike


• That 4 will really pep things up.


• Odds are against India but one good over can change it .


• It is going down to the wire.


• They need to keep their wickets and score runs.


• He needs to move his feet , he needs to judge the line and length and strike the ball cleanly.


• The field is set for the off-side , he shouldn’t be bowling down the leg ! ( as if The bowler enjoys bowling like that )


• This one takes the cake – at the beginning of a run chase – the batsman need to keep calm , keep wickets , rotate strike , keep the score board ticking and not allow the required run rate to go out of hand ! And I thought that they need to do something else.
  
• He needs to take a single and retain strike.


• I get a creeping feeling that it isn’t over yet - (if it was over you wouldn’t be sitting here and giving such lousy comments right . )


• LBW not given - Maybe it was jussst outside the leg stump.


• In the airrrrr – fielder getting underneath ittttt – and he misses ! ( I am watching it on screen buddy and I need a commentator to validate what I just saw !)


• While waiting for the 3rd umpire decision on a very close call – It is given Not Out – and the commentator says “It’s a right call” what the heck while seeing the umpteem replays he didn’t commit and after the decision is flashed he actually agrees ! C mon man you are a cricketer as least take a bloody call .
  

‘Some abused phrases and terminologies’

• The ball went like a tracer bullet. Ravi Shastri’s contribution


• .The ball is appearing like a football to him.


• They have to find a few boundaries now.


• No fast bowler will like to be hit like that! (As if spinners love to be hit)


• From here India needs a miracle to win the game.


• He is not playing his natural game. I cant understand what’s happened to him today?


• Dhoni was looking for this length and he gave it a good whack for the maximum.

On Sehwag:

Innings when is going good

• He is such a wonderful player he can make room and slam any ball and if he goes on like this the match could be over very soon

When he gets out on 7

• he tried something odd by making room and it was not required.

C Mon man give him a break and his due. He has at least brought India's name along with Bradman and Lara in Tests, even if you ignore his achievements in One Days and T20

Another gem from this match:

32 runs required 12 balls 1 wicket remaining and Dhoni on strike, Ishant at the non-striker end, Afridi to bowl and L. Sivaramakrishnan says - I don’t think he will be looking for a single , he should take a few boundaries in the first 5 balls and THEN take a single . Wow – this was an awesome insight from an expert commentator which I didn’t know at all!



If you have some more classics like this then do feel free to add on to it in the comments.


I am desperately waiting for the commentators to understand that their job is not to just describe whats happening on the field , they need to give insights , anecdotes , predictions , analyze those statistics etc and not insult our intelligence by rattling off what we can see.

Need more Harsha Bhogles desperately as now we are going to have many matches and we might as well start watching the matches MUTE.

Sachin you listening .

Brand Control Council of India

Brand Control Council of India

Perhaps the most engrossing news that has been doing the rounds nowadays, is the BCCI announcing new schemes regarding its conduct, pay schemes etc.
I was left wondering on why have they not introduced , Goals, KRA’s , the Deliverables , Hours of Training at the nets per year when they introduced performance based pay systems - in effect a full fledged ‘corporatisation ‘ of the Game.

So far so good - but wait did I miss out on something , I always used to believe that these people (players) have devoted their life to Cricket and becuz they were able to convert their dream to reality they are not in the Corporate rut and boy was I jealous . They were held in high esteem , not because they are famous, but because they dared to be different and had the guts to go out and play their heart out .

Now it is a different story now even they have to worry about year end
performance appraisals and month end paycheques poor guys , Crab Mentality cant have somebody happy ! .

Now lets focus on one of the rulings – No player can endorse more than 3 brands or is it companies or is it campaigns /Ads in a year . And no brand or is it company or a campaign/Ad can take more that 2 players at a time.

Now let me get one thing straight, Research people / Companies do research worth lakhs to find a ‘ brand fit’ between a celebrity and the Brand Values . Lot of MR people go to lots of places stay in great places to get out vital significant Quant and Quali insights into this whole process of Brand Fit . Clients Pay money , MR people spend effort and time period . But now …….
Although somehow all brand values seem to fit SRK or AB or Sachin or Dhoni for some weird reason . but we’ll let this thought pass for the time being!

So BCCI now has controlled how many Brand Fit possible in a year , C mon even if the MR people say that Uthappa is the purrrfect fit for your itch guard cream , you CANT do anything , you must go in for Kader Khan or Pawar (Not Romesh .. you twit ! ) …………Period.

What happens to the Sports Management firms ! nothing they will become like media managers , buy as much brands as possible and allocate it to the players………………. 2 each . Lawyers will get a lot of business as they would be fighting with the BCCI on how a Brand / Ad/Campaign/Company are all same things …. Uthappa would be doing Lux, Surf , Rin, Rexona but they are in fact Brand “Extentions” of only Two Categories ! (We might have some Players and lawyers taking up a crash course in MICA to understand the nuances …. Cheapo ! )


But but , having said that I am again slightly confused reg. the concept of a Brand Ambassador . In the case of sports , I had thought , a Sport becomes popular , more and more people watch it , few sportsmen become popular and their Brand Value is mapped and calculated using sophisticated matrices ( although Sachin will always get more than anybody no matter what he scores but that’s a different thing………! ) As higher number of eyeballs are captured , a brand thinks that by associating with this celebrity it can piggyback and get some leverage . So Far so Good.

So in effect it is supply demand thing , more the demand for a sports more the demand for the people playing the sport , and more the demand for endorsements . So in effect the people (public) who are raising a hue and cry over the endorsements done by players , when in fact it is due to THEM that they are getting any kind of work !

So stop watching cricket and they would stop getting endorsements !!!

hey ………. now that is interesting , I think the BCCI has actually done a BIG favor to the players . As anywayz they were not going to get any renewals of their contracts with Pepsi’s of the world , but now they need not get embarrassed they can always say that they have deliberately not taken up any endorsement for the sake of the country ! Kool Na .. BCCI wins, The Players Wins , The Public …… always the Ch#$@# a’s !


If you have read this far then I must appreciate your patience , anyhow the above thing did not make anysense to me and if it did to you , please please do comment . Would love to hear from you .

Btw, I am raising a PIL that SRk should reduce the ads that he is doing as his films are not upto the mark and also KBC is going down in TRP’s . there should be a cap on 1 ad every year and 1 extra ad for every hit movie he give . Sounds logical right , performance based incentive .. ha ha .


Leaving you with this thought, Turning a hobby into your profession is the most difficult thing to achieve, but once you do that it is no more a hobby!

Btw. If you wondering what has the image got to do with the article ...NOTHING ... I had just clicked it yesterday and was force fitting it .. thats all . Being a MICAn i could have given you a 20 point paper on the relevance of the pic , but lets leave it now.

Cheers