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Say it again, Bob
By Will last year, mid-February, 1 Comment »
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As England slumped yesterday, Sky’s commentary team sprung into fervent action. Its coverage of events in Jamaica was excellent, led by Ian Ward (Wardy) in the studio, whose questions to Nick Knight (Knighty), Bob Willis (Bob) and Nasser Hussain (Nass) were akin to floaty half-volleys, the like of which England’s batsmen could only dream of as Jerome Taylor continued to york them for fun. Hussain and co responded magnificently.
But first, it was Willis who provided the entertainment when he launched another dreamy attack on Daryl Harper, the third umpire who upheld another controversial decision which was referred by the players. “He’s got to be given his pension book and [taken] out of there,” Willis spat, his lip curled in disgust. “He is hopeless.” Hussain and Mikey Holding were no less disparaging, both lauding the use of technology while questioning the credentials of the person sitting behind the monitor.
By now, Ward was revelling in his role as the anchorman with licence to laugh. Barely able to suppress his giggling at Willis’s growing animosity towards everyone, with perfect timing England began to collapse, providing him with further ammunition to wind up his easily-angered colleagues. Not even the usually polite and cheery Knight could hide his confusion and anger at the dominoes tumbling in Kingston. “These are Test cricketers!” he pleaded to the camera with justifiably perplexed anguish. His excellent analysis of Alastair Cook’s near-total lack of feet movement provided substance to his grumbles, but it wasn’t long before Ian Botham (Sir Ian, or Sreean) turned the tables on him.
Knight knows Ian Bell better, perhaps, than Ian Bell knows himself. And after a brief impression of Tony Blair – palms open, and a call for unity: “hey, guys. Come on. Let’s be sensible” – Knight admitted that Bell’s issues, unlike Cook, are upstairs in the head. Bell’s detractors might not have learned much by that facile analysis, but in one fell swoop, England’s No.3 had lost the backing of his No.1 fan.
Hussain, though, stood out. Rarely is Botham demoted to being a sideshow yet, as Kingston began to reverberate, Hussain didn’t let him get a word in. A torrent of analysis, anger, mild abuse and pent-up frustration frothed from Hussain’s mouth, as a gleeful Ward fed him with questions straight out of the Devil’s Advocate handbook.
Sky – who are not a free-to-air channel – aren’t often applauded, but their coverage of a wonderfully dramatic day in Jamaica was both entertaining and slick.
1 Comment »TWC commentator’s poll
By Jonathan Liew 3 years ago, at the end of September, 16 Comments »
The latest issue of the Wisden Cricketer features the now regular poll on readers’ favourite commentators. Geoff Boycott takes top spot, followed by Jonathan Agnew, David Lloyd, Michael Atherton and Michael Holding.
What does everyone think about that?
And why was Mark Nicholas
Life after Benaud
By Ian 3 years ago, mid-June, 29 Comments »
On Desert Island Discs, you are allowed one luxury. Given mine would be a magical television that showed all available live cricket (as well as choice re-runs), I’d be able to pick my favourite pundits to describe the action. Who are my top commentators? In theory, I would only need two to cover the matches, but that would be unfair on them (I’m not a tyrant), so I’d hire five to mix it up and give the others a rest.
Therefore, below are my five favourite commentators. Benaud would have been there, of course, as would Brian Johnston, but we must all move on. There are honourable mentions for Lloyd, Gower, Holding, Dujon, Nasser, Knight, Ward, Smith, Lawry and Greig, but these five pick themselves.My Top Five: Michael Atherton, Jimmy Adams, Michael Slater, Geoff Boycott and Simon Hughes.
I can’t imagine anyone will disagree, but then it’s your island. Pick who you like!
29 Comments »