Oct 14, 2004 10:52 PM
8338 Views
(Updated Oct 17, 2004 11:16 AM)
It is interesting to read people?s views on bad commentators, but let me just divert a little and tell you about bad CRS. Now the obvious question is what are CRS ? CRS or ?Crickets Related Shows? are pregame-midgame and Postgame cricket analysis shows which are there everywhere.
You see in India we virtually have cricket in our bloods. More then watching the matches we like to talk about it, read about it and share our opinions about it, which is why these analysis shows are a boon. Every news channel worth it?s salt has a show with big names on the panel, what the heck even my cablewalla has a cricket analysis show of his own (in Gujarati and mind you the who?s who of Baroda?s cricket world turn up on this show !). And since everyone watches them, why should they be left alone without some dissection. So here goes??.
5. Silly Point
Now this show is very much true to it?s name- Silly point because the panel keeps discussing Silly points ! The panel is composed of Jadeja, Kirti Azad, a fat guy with moustache (I can?t recollect his name !) and a lady cricketer Anju and when you see this show you realize that the only person good on the panel is the host !
The other day when I was watching the show, Kumble had taken 7 wickets against Australia on 1st day of 2nd test but instead of starting the show with the highlight of the day, they start with the performance of Yuvraj as an opener ! Quite frankly this one should be called Yuvraj Point because most of the time and efforts are wasted on discussing about him. Today too whole of 31 minutes were spent on discussing about it. Jadeja always supports Yuvraj, Kirti Azad practices Yuvraj bashing (today he came up with an interesting conspiracy theory against Yuvraj !), the moustache guy always compares ?Yuvi? with Chopra (by the way who is he, the moustche guy I mean !) and Anju doesn?t speak till spoken to. And after the daily dose of Yuvraj Singh is over they start discussing the wickets fallen one by one. And finally when the dust has settled and when they start to discuss Kumble the time falls short and the host impolitely stops a Jadeja speech and calls it the day !
4. Sidhu on NDTV 24 X 7
Ever since he is out from the elite ESPN STAR sports panel he springs up from everywhere. Nowadays the Mr. Histrionics Singh Sidhu is associated with NDTV. Sometimes he turns up the English channel and sometimes in the Hindi and on a bad day on both. Turn on you TV at about 7 and evening and you can virtual hear the Pasha of Popcorn cricket shouting his metaphors and similies on one of the NDTV channels. But I have always found Sidhu quite entertaining and his opinions though emotionally charged are pretty smart but the most entertaining part of the show are the expression on the CO-hosts faces ! He used to turn up with a cute co-host in the hindi version (who is quite inspired by Sidhu herself nowadays !) who used to give a 1000 watt smile everytime Mr. Singh would give a characteristic Metaphor. Infact it almost seem the co-host are mocking and silently making fun of Sidhu. Well to prove my point they also have a Sidhu puppet made on there show ?Gustakhi Maaf? !
3 Stand up shows ! (Star News, AAJ Tak etc)
I am calling them stand up shows because one I don?t remember their names and second almost all the channels have this type of shows. Here a host and a expert is standing in front of a huge TV display and discuss stuff and I have only one suggestion for them , please sit down and talk ! Infact it virtually tires me seeing them stand for so long ! Agreed the expert is an ex-cricketer like Sandeep Patil but what about the poor host, he is no athlete ! He keeps shuffling around balancing on one leg or the other, for God?s sakes he might get Varicose veins or something , just sit down dude.
2. Shaz and Waz show
This is the ESPN Star?s response to Mandira?s Spaggetti starps. Mix sex with cricket and you have a winning combination???.or so they think. On this show you have Ravi Shastri and Wasim Akram in tight T-Shirts who first discuss some cricket and then flirt with a pretty girl ! Firstly Ravi Shastri is an old fashioned boring sort of a commentator and his Avtar as some greek God or something frankly doesn?t suit him and Wasim?oh heavens Wasim, this guy conveniently shifts between English and Hindi changing the language in each line. I am not sure whether he does it on his own or he is asked to do so but the result is quite a disaster.
I like the idea of seeing pretty maidens between maiden overs but there are problems here too. First of all who votes for them, most of the time the prettiest girl of the three we vote for doesn?t make it ! And when the chosen girl turns up (after a lot of hype and all ) the show becomes even more boring. The two chaps don?t even know how to flirt with a girl. Wasim smiles about shyly and Ravi who tries to be an extrovert sometimes becomes plainly vulgar. Infact I would not be surprised if a girl or two has slapped him off camera ! You see flirting is an art it requires wit, humor, style and some amount of decency. And the questions they ask the girls are all standard, ?What?s you name, where do you live, what do you do, who is your favorite cricketer and how is the night life here !?
1 XXtra Innings
No don?t get me wrong, I like Mandira she is smart and sexy, the format of the show is really cool and so is the set and all. But somehow the SET MAX people have managed to combine an ensemble collection of the worst possible commentators and put them in one show. The who?s who of bad commentary are all there, Arun Lal, Stammering Venkatesh, Robin Singh (yes !), Kapil Dev, Kris Srikhanth (Ricky Martin?.sorry Ricky Ponting !) , Roshan Mahanama?.the list is endless. The discussions are so boring and uninformative that even the Tarot card reader knows more cricket then all of them combined ! Trying to give something Extra?they have lost everything Intra !
(Contd in Comments Section: Comments on the fourth Umpire Show on DD National...the new no. 1 ..see comment no. 9)
