Cricket Commentators You Don’t Know About I Cricketfile

Cricket Commentators You Don’t Know About I Cricketfile

Commentary Meaning

While commentary verbatim means making comments (offering what a person think about) any given situation or an event. When it comes to sports commentary, it is about describing the ongoing developments and how they are being affected by various factors. With cricket, there are a lot of technical and physical facts that people talk about the most.

Commentary Meaning In Hindi

Commentary ka matlab kisi bhi ghatna ya ho rahi vasthusthiti par apne vichar prakat karna ya uski vyakhya karna hota hain. Jab baat khel commentary ki ati hain uska arth kisi bhi match ke barein main vistaar se samajhana hota hain.

Khelo ko dekhne wale isse bade chaav se sunte hain aur khaas taur par TV ya smartphone par. Purane jamane main commentary radio par sunna badi baat mani jaati thi.

How To Change Commentary Language In Hotstar?

When it comes to using Hotstar on your smartphone, tablet, personal computer or a laptop, you can click on the settings (gear shaped) icon and then choose the language of your preference. You don’t have to install another Hotstar app for changing languages.

How To Write A Commentary?

There are two types of people while writing commentary and both should follow some things if they wish to write an honest commentary about what went down in the match or game.

1. Those Who Saw The Match

If you have seen the match live on a TV or a smartphone can write commentary very well but it will be far better if they make short hand notes about things too including major incidences. One thing to remember is that you watching the match for writing a commentary later and it is better not to forget that and get carried away by watching it as a spectator.

2. Those Who Haven’t Seen The Match

Yes, it is possible to write a proper commentary by simple looking at the final scorecard too. While this might sound somewhat technical and bland but by making use of proper and eloquent words, one can turn things around in his or her favor.

English Commentary

As for cricket, English commentary has by far more reach in terms of number of countries than other languages. If a commentator does commentary in English people from Australia and New Zealand to the United Kingdom will understand it.

Though it all does come down choosing which language you can enjoy the game most. Because remember, in the end, it all comes down to your experience as a fan. Yes, there are people that will judge in both the ways when it comes to English or any other language. But it is better to ignore them.

Famous English Cricket Commentators

Name

Connection With Cricket

Ravi Shastri Former Indian cricketer who is well known for hitting 6 sixes in 6 balls in an over
Wasim Akram Former captain of the Pakistan cricket team
Ian Chapell Former Australian captain and a major cricket commentator
Harsha Bhogle A famous name in this field although he never played international cricket or domestic cricket

Hindi Commentary

Perhaps the most widely enjoyed commentary language in the world. While it is true that Hindi that is used in colloquial form isn’t what it used to be, its influence hence has spilled over to a lot more number of people.

To give you a perspective, the Hindi belt in India (region where a large percentage of people can understand the language) includes Uttarakhand, UP, Rajasthan, MP, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Chattisgarh and Bihar.

The total population of these states is more than half a billion people! Not just this, there are people in other states of India too that understand Hindi.

Note that many of the commentators who do it Hindi also do it in English as well. The influence of English as a language is ubiquitous in India.

Famous Hindi Cricket Commentators

Name

Connection With Cricket

Aakash Chopra Former Indian batsman turned commentator who also has a huge clout on YouTube
Navjot Singh Sidhu An all-rounder (in life) who was a notable batsman of his time.
Sunil Gavaskar Former cricketer whose contribution as a test batsman was immense
Kapil Dev Captain under whom the Indian team won the 1983 cricket World Cup

English Commentary Vs Hindi Commentary

Similarities

  • Both enhance the viewing experience. (Imagine a match without commentary in the background, you will get our point)
  • Watching match with your favorite commentator in the commentary box is indeed a great thing and enhances the experience of cricket fans
  • Both at moments can make you smile or laugh like anything. It can be due to wit or humor.
  • Both can be boring at times and sometimes even redundant
  • There is a chance that people will judge you for choosing either of them.

Difference between English Commentary and Hindi  Commentary

English Commentary

Hindi Commentary

Sounds sophisticated Will sound lame to some even if it is sophisticated
There is a chance you might learn some new words Here too it is the same but there is a high probability that you will mock those words as “shuddh Hindi” and simply move on
Validates the fact that cricket originated in England but fails to tell new fans that England No need to validate anything as India keeps proving its caliber time and again
There can be problem of accent for many (British, Australian, Indian) Its Hindi. It doesn’t have anything to do with accent. If you know its basic grammar, you are good to go
There is a compulsion to sound official Casual conversation are like casual ones and let’s just it is just more natural

Importance of Commentary

As younger fans of cricket are enjoying the sport on apps on their smartphones, one thing has remained the same. Commentary. That is what has been making the sport more interesting and even funny sometimes.

Nevertheless, here we have compiled a list of Indian cricket commentators who have tremendous fan following because of their commentary style.

Indian Cricket Commentators List

Navjot Singh Sidhu

His commentary isn’t something that a large section of cricket fans like but nevertheless he offers something which many others don’t. Energetic way of describing the ongoing progress of a match is what he does the best. It should also be noted he started his commentary career in 2001.

Harsha Bhogle

While he is quite a famous and well-known commentator, many don’t know that he isn’t a former international cricketer. Though during his University days, he used to play the sport. He began his career as an Indian cricket commentator at the age of just 19 with AIR.

Ravi Shastri

About him, though he might have attracted of cricket fans after his spat with Ganguly, he started to comment on cricket matches since the World Masters Tournament in 1995. With Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri used to do commentary for ESPN-Star Sports too till 2008. His international career involved being part of the 1983 World Cup winning squad as well.

Virender Sehwag

One of the most dominating Indian batsman of all times, he too has featured as a commentator. He has been criticized and praised for various aspects of his style of commentary. Just like the explosive way in which he used to bat, his commentary too sometimes gets out of the technical scope of cricket and sometimes might end up with bashing the team playing against India.

Sanjay Manjrekar

He started as a commentator after his retirement from professional cricket. He however, was a center of some controversies too. Like in IPL 2017, he referred to Keiron Pollard as ‘brainless’. He later clarified about what he meant or said or wanted to say in place of that too. Another moment was when he criticized Jadeja about his capability as a player and Jaddu went on to play well in the next matches.

VVS Laxman

Very very special (nickname) Laxman is a former batsman who was also a well-known test cricket player. He did receive criticism for his poor command over Hindi on which he later explained that he was taking ‘tuitions’. Nevertheless, this doesn’t put a question mark on his ability to help people understand the game since he was considered as a master at building partnerships as a batsman.

Anil Kumble

Before becoming a commentator, as a player he was considered to be the best spinner that Indian cricket had ever seen. He went on to play for almost 2 decades from 1990 to 2008 taking 619 wickets in international test cricket. While many do remember him as a spinner, his batting high score stands at 110* in test cricket.

Vinod Kambli

Many do know that he presents his analysis on TV Channels when it comes to cricket but few know that he is the one who has the highest test cricket average to date. His first-class average stands at close to 60. The sad thing is that he played his last and 17th test match at the age of just 24.

Sunil Gavaskar

Little master and Sunny are two of his famous nickname. While many know him to be a commentator today, he has had his fair share of controversies as well. He was once given an ultimatum to either choose doing commentary or be a part of ICC’s cricket committee. He chose the first option out of the two.

Sourav Ganguly

Dada too is a well-known commentator as well. His witty replies are something that one never gets tired off. During his brief altercation with Shastri, he displayed this technique on Twitter as well. Yes, there are those commentators who try to be funny and succeed sometimes but wit is something that Sourav Ganguly seems to have a copyright on.

Rahul Dravid

While many may think that Dravid isn’t someone who would go beyond the technical aspects of the game but wait there is more to things. As for some of his hilarious replies, he has trolled Sourav for fitness, passed savage comments on Afridi and gave a befitting reply to Nasser which left him clueless.

Kapil Dev

While it is true that his contribution to Indian cricket has been immense, as a commentator, he didn’t see much success in English commentary due to his poor control over the language. But some do enjoy his Hindi commentary still and many of the fans troll him too for making obvious or unrequired statements for no reason.

Aakash Chopra

Besides being a regular commentator, he has also become a part of the new phenomenon of former cricketers starting up a YouTube channel. His balanced and coherent way of commenting on the ongoing events of match have earned him several fans as well. Though his international career lasted for just 10 tests, Aakash Chopra has become a formidable force as a YouTuber and a cricket commentator.

Bishan Singh Bedi

He is perhaps one of the few of those cricketers who represented India before the 1983 World Cup and retired as well. Bishan Singh Bedi has been a centre of many controversies too.

Kirti Azad

Besides being a commentator, he has also ventured into politics. But he was removed from his party (BJP) and then went on to fight 2019 elections on INC’s ticket. He lost to a BJP candidate.

Mohinder Amarnath

The man who contributed the most towards making sure that India won the 1983 World Cup, he was even awarded man of the match awards for both the semi-final and final match back then. His courage and the ability of never giving up is something that has been commended by even the players of the other teams.

Ajit Agarkar

He too is a commentator but an interesting fact about him is that he played in the IPL too. In an international career spanning almost a decade from 1998 to 2007, he represented India close to 200 ODIs. He does it in both Hindi and English languages.

Conclusion

These were the list of Indian commentators that have made their name because of doing it in an excellent manner. Many of them themselves are former cricketers and hence, know the ins and outs of what is going on in each scenario.

By becoming commentators after retiring as professional cricketers, they are in a way giving back a lot to the game and to the fans especially. A lot of new fans understand minor technicalities just by listening to what these guys say.

 

 

 

 

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