Stadium Bad, Studio Good
An observation about the team that TEN Sports has put together to cover the India-Pakistan series.
The on-air commentary team at the stadium is an assortment of some of the premier yawn-inducers in the modern cricketing media. Throw Ranjit Fernando in and you will have undoubtedly the "worst ever" panel.
Here are a few samples of their commentary -
Deanno - Chee, the batsman is a class act, and the bowler is a class act too. And my word, that was a beautiful shot, and what fielding! The fielder really is a class act! The umpire, now he's a real class act, has called one run short. My word. What a crime. This stadium is a class act, the security guards are class acts, that specvtator there is a class act, and the other spectator too is a class act. I hand over the mic to Rameez Raja my co-commentator whose barber is surely a class act.
Rameez Raja - The Indian Bait-ing line-up looks good. Yoveraaj Singh wil day-fee-nate-lee play well.
Waqar Younis - Yes, but it will be difficult to compare with Shahid Khan Afridi and Kamran Khan Akmal. Younis Khan Khan was unlucky to miss the 200, as was Mohammad Khan Yousuf. In the enxt inning I am sure Salman Khan Butt will do better. What do you think Michael Khan Holding?
Michael Holding - Aactully let us talk aabout how Eengland saaacks. Daat is maa areaa of specialeetee.
Well, you get the idea. :)
The studio panel, comprising of Manjrekar, Imran and Nasser Hussain is however very good. All of them are quite articulate and can use incidents from their past very well to illustrate a point and also make the proceedings interesting. I especially find that Manjrekar "manages" Imran very well, and asks him all the right questions, and extracts the maximum out of him.
Nasser Hussain is better in the studio than on air, and though at times he feels left out from the discussions between Manjrekar and Imran, he does jump in and adds a nugget of wisdom or two.
The on-air commentary team at the stadium is an assortment of some of the premier yawn-inducers in the modern cricketing media. Throw Ranjit Fernando in and you will have undoubtedly the "worst ever" panel.
Here are a few samples of their commentary -
Deanno - Chee, the batsman is a class act, and the bowler is a class act too. And my word, that was a beautiful shot, and what fielding! The fielder really is a class act! The umpire, now he's a real class act, has called one run short. My word. What a crime. This stadium is a class act, the security guards are class acts, that specvtator there is a class act, and the other spectator too is a class act. I hand over the mic to Rameez Raja my co-commentator whose barber is surely a class act.
Rameez Raja - The Indian Bait-ing line-up looks good. Yoveraaj Singh wil day-fee-nate-lee play well.
Waqar Younis - Yes, but it will be difficult to compare with Shahid Khan Afridi and Kamran Khan Akmal. Younis Khan Khan was unlucky to miss the 200, as was Mohammad Khan Yousuf. In the enxt inning I am sure Salman Khan Butt will do better. What do you think Michael Khan Holding?
Michael Holding - Aactully let us talk aabout how Eengland saaacks. Daat is maa areaa of specialeetee.
Well, you get the idea. :)
The studio panel, comprising of Manjrekar, Imran and Nasser Hussain is however very good. All of them are quite articulate and can use incidents from their past very well to illustrate a point and also make the proceedings interesting. I especially find that Manjrekar "manages" Imran very well, and asks him all the right questions, and extracts the maximum out of him.
Nasser Hussain is better in the studio than on air, and though at times he feels left out from the discussions between Manjrekar and Imran, he does jump in and adds a nugget of wisdom or two.
