Worst Commentators

[_Ed_]

I thought all people competing at the Olympics were athletes.

 

[Richard]

Well I was referring to those competing in the athletics TBH.

 

[Prince EWS]

I doubt you'll find too many Olympic athletes who'd make good Grand Slam tennis players either.






(Just in case anyone doesn't understand what I'm saying there - the point is that limited-overs and two-innings limitless-over cricket are different things, and no amount of similarity will make them the same)

Yeah. I've always viewed them in a similar way to how I view rugby league and rugby union. They're a bit more similar to each other than that but not much, and league and union are regarded as totally different sports. Now obviously this has a lot to do with the fact that they have totally seperate boards, players, fixtures, fans etc, but the general point remains IMO. If someone asked me who was a better rugby league player out of Daniel Holdsworth and Matt Giteau, I'd answer with Holdsworth as Giteau has done nothing in rugby league at all despite being potentially much, much better than Holdsworth. I wouldn't consider Mat Rogers's rugby union exploits for example when asked how good a rugby league player he was.

I guess the ultimate rebuttal to this would be that limited overs cricket is still cricket whilst rugby union is not rugby league and I guess people would have a point, but I essentially don't really view them as similar enough to combine them in any way.

 

[haroon510]

i thought this was interesting..

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/360351.html

no surprise's why shasteri and bhogle were voted more cuz they are indian and alot of indians visit espn star sport website.. at least i am happy to see tony graig being on the top of the one catagary..

also sanjay manjerkar is ten times better than both bhogle and shasteri and i wonder why he didn't get to many votes. ian beshop and roben jackman are other under rated once..

 

[Uppercut]

I'll never forgive any of the Indian commentators involved in the IPL. Ever.

 

[tin_tin]

He is the ultimate commentary-box poser. I don't mean in terms of his natty dress sense, I mean in terms of his smug self-satisfaction in his commentary. The content of what he's saying is actually relatively perceptive and thoughtful. But his operatic delivery and his oh-so affected language make him the ultimate ponce among pundits.

"Sixer!"
"HO HO Freddie!"
"By heaven!"

As I may have mentioned already on this thread, someone once summed it up brilliantly by saying that Nicholas is "laminated in a veneer of self-regard".

His drooling over the skills and muscles of the Australian team is also more than a little embarrassing.

Nail on the head.
I enjoy listening to most Cricket Commentators. But Nicholas just makes me cringe.

Coalville is just a TIT, cant stand the guy. Dont rate Botham either, he just cant seem to get his words out. Willis just needs to cheer up!

I dont mind the commentry of Gower, Hussain, or Atherton. The latter being the better i think. Alot on here are slating Lloyd, i know he speaks before he thinks. But he's not all bad. Dont mind Boycott either.


The commentator i do like however is Nick Knight IMO. People may disagree with me. But i like the way he annalizes the play, he seems to have done his research and has great knowledge.


Other great commentators ive liked in the past Benaud, Lewis, Bannister.

 

[Napier16]

The commentator i do like however is Nick Knight IMO. People may disagree with me. .

I certainly do.

Knight's terrible.

 

[tin_tin]

I certainly do.

Knight's terrible.

Each to there own.

 

[Uppercut]

Nail on the head.
I enjoy listening to most Cricket Commentators. But Nicholas just makes me cringe.

Coalville is just a TIT, cant stand the guy. Dont rate Botham either, he just cant seem to get his words out. Willis just needs to cheer up!

Did anyone else instinctively think TIT was another exclusively-cricketweb abbreviation?

 

[tin_tin]

Did anyone else instinctively think TIT was another exclusively-cricketweb abbreviation?

Ha ha. Does it really matter?

 

[Smith108]

I certainly do.

Knight's terrible.

He's no where near as bad as Ian Ward or Paul Allot, they're just boring.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Hussain's over-use of the word 'whack' is doing my head in ATM. He risks simplifying batting to nothing. Even big-hitting is more about technique than anything else.

 

[TT Boy]

Unless you’re a one eyed Englishmen, Knight is terrible. I don’t think I have ever heard him critique or indeed criticise anyone who is English, “they are all talented, young, good cricketers” to him.

 

[tooextracool]

i thought this was interesting..

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/360351.html

no surprise's why shasteri and bhogle were voted more cuz they are indian and alot of indians visit espn star sport website.. at least i am happy to see tony graig being on the top of the one catagary..

also sanjay manjerkar is ten times better than both bhogle and shasteri and i wonder why he didn't get to many votes. ian beshop and roben jackman are other under rated once..

Bhogle has to rival Gavaskar in being one of the most biased commentators around. Hes great to listen to as a presentator because he has an excellent command of the English language and he knows how to involve the experts but as a commentator hes a joke.

 

[pskov]

On my bad list are:

Ian Healy - Just all round dreadful and so completely biased it borders on the absurd
Bill Lawry - At least with him I think the top one-eyed Aussie is a big pantomime act he puts on. Doesn't mean it still isn't awful though.
Mark Nicholas - Stop trying to annotate the game as if it's a 1970s children's comic!!!!
Bob Willis - He'd make winning the lottery sound less appealing than a colostomy.
David Gower - So anodyne I am surprised he remembers to breathe.
Tony Grieg - It's amazing how such a talented player and Test captain can seemingly have absolutely no clue about the game whatsoever.

Some of the good ones whom I like:

Geoffrey Boycott - Is good at analysis and is one of the few commentators who I feel is fair in both praise and criticism of players and teams.
Nasser Hussain - Another who I think is good in analysing play.
Robert Croft - Still currently captaining on the county circuit and it shows I think, knows the players very well and is good tactically on comms.

And of course just about all the TMS team, though especially Jonathan Agnew and Angus Fraser. Phill Tuffnell was also surprisingly impressive in his stint earlier this summer, I hope he becomes a regular.

 

[tooextracool]

Whilst commentators like Lawry, Greig and Nicholas dont really have much analysis into the game itself, they continually keep you (or me at least) at the edge of your seat when they are in the box. It's great to have Ian Chappell's and Geoffrey Boycotts in the commentary box, but if thats all that we had there would be no one seriously capable of giving a play by play description of the cricket that is being played.
Personally, Waqar and Jayasuriya are 2 of the worst commentators around. That they are actually given the opportunity to commentate is rather ridiculous in my book.

 

[PavlovsDog]

I certainly do.


Knight's terrible.

I prefer Knight when he is in studio discussions more than I like him in the booth.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah AWTA actually. Same goes for Thorpe, who, tbh, I'd never heard (or least noticed) commentating until yesterday

 

[Uppercut]

Mark Nicholas - Stop trying to annotate the game as if it's a 1970s children's comic!!!!

He does seem to have built his vocabulary around the words that popped up on the screen when someone was punched in the 1950s batman tv show.

 

[zaremba]

On my bad list are:

Ian Healy - Just all round dreadful and so completely biased it borders on the absurd
Bill Lawry - At least with him I think the top one-eyed Aussie is a big pantomime act he puts on. Doesn't mean it still isn't awful though.
Mark Nicholas - Stop trying to annotate the game as if it's a 1970s children's comic!!!!
Bob Willis - He'd make winning the lottery sound less appealing than a colostomy.
David Gower - So anodyne I am surprised he remembers to breathe.

Fully in agreement with this. Particularly your summary of Gower. Anodyne is the perfect word to describe him.