Yesterday after a long time I had time and mood enough to watch the test match between Newzealand and India and got to witness one of the most funniest commentary ever by Mr.
Arun Lal who had a shorter stint with Indian National Cricket Team than Antara Mali in Bollywood (just watching MR ya MISS swappyily).
He and Charu Shamra were dissecting the NZ innings and Mr. Lal kept on blabbering about STROKING it in the right places by the first looks of Indian innings. I shook myself up from the breakfast I was eating thinking that I heard something wrong or the channel has shifted to some channel not so U rated. Again Mr. Lal continues to give gyan to Mr. Charu about STROKING.
This was just the beginning of my hysterical laughter sessions. Mr. Lal went on talking about STROKING it there STROKING it here. STROKING the right ball, STROKING it in the gaps, STROKING it in between the fielders. Thank god he did not STROKE the “LEATHER BALL”. STROKING what was mentioned finally by Mr. Lal and my laughter had woken up the entire
apartment am sure he said “people should learn stroking the ball into gaps from him (referring to Vettori). When the camera
moved to Charu he was visibly in all smiles I don’t know whether he was happy to hear about Stroking men or does he belong to Karan Johar
happy and gay club or is he doubting Mr. Lal might also belong there?
Finally the stroking had to come to an end when Charu had to end the show because of innings start. Well I for the first time enjoyed watching commentary. But otherwise they just talk about what’s god damn obvious. If the batsmen connects the ball and shoots it outside the boundary rope they say in chorus Great shot, great timing, what beautiful balance, grace, he is greatest batsmen of our times. They dig up his history of great innings and scores and keep mentioning it. They will show you something called the wagon wheel which shows where he has “STROKED” the ball. With lines indicating where the ball has met the rope or the boundaries of nice STROKING. And other building like structures which will help you see how much he has STROKED in his last few innings.
Whoever has played minimum gully cricket know that if you swing and connect it’s a score if you don’t its either out or another chance to take a swing at the ball.
The other side of the coin is when he misses the ball or gives away the wicket. Then they turn their attention to the man with three leather balls (pun intended) and start his praise rolling. They will tell him the ball was pitched in the right place and the batsmen could not STROKE it in any way what so ever. They will show you the bowlers’ record of beating the batsmen or his wicket getting statistics and the pitch with lots of small balls showing the length of the pitched ball.
The self praise and technology help should only better the commentary not dump us with information we will never even remember or use or even interesting. If its wine why not serve it in new bottle atleast…
What is the need for them where are the smart commentators gone? Why do they tell us what we already know? They think we are dumb? Why can’t all be little entertaining like Mr. Lal today and talk about stroking. But before I end I have once nice commentator to remember Mr. Henry Blofeld who genuinely admitted his limited amount of cricket knowledge but I thoroughly loved his “earring” comments during a certain Dubai cricket tournament. Hope to see some more sensible commentary around.
Thanx for dropping by and saying nice thinsg bro! And It is true that mediocrity rules the Indian Television scene. There's not much we can do about it is there?
ReplyDeleteat least now I can say lets start a channel ;)
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