Saturday, Feb 05, 2011

Gulf News

Last week when Kapil Dev, the 1983 World Cup winning captain, was in Dubai to announce the live coverage of ICC World Cup through Channel 2 Group’s Cricket Radio, he spoke about the impact of radio commentary on his career. He said that it was commentary on the radio that first ignited his imagination to become a cricketer.

“In the 70s there was hardly any television coverage and I was constantly glued to the radio listening to cricket commentaries around the world ...and that is how I got inspired,” he said. Youngsters today, who get to watch nearly every match live on television, may not understand the depth of his feelings.

Personally, I too got to watch live television coverage only from the India-Pakistan 1978 series when Dev made his debut, and that too on a black and white television. Though watching live cricket was exciting at first, I soon realised how different it was from a radio commentary.

Inspiring

Commentators ignite one’s imagination and their manner of describing shots and deliveries can be very inspiring.

Live television coverage does not really explain the intricacies involved in the shots through words and it is left to your cricketing knowledge to grasp the beauty of those shots.

John Arlott, Richie Benaud, Henry Blofeld, Brian Johnston, AFS Talyarkhan, Christopher Marin-Jenkins were some of the greats who with their command over language managed to paint a picture as real as in a match. The first time I tested this was when in 1977 India’s G.R. Viswanath played a Ranji Trophy match against Kerala in Trivandrum after a great series against Australia.

I was curious to check whether the strokes, especially his late cut which commentators describe so colourfully, matched my imagination. So I positioned myself next to the sight screen at the third man.

Knowing Viswanath’s mastery over the late cut, a field of three slips, a gully and a third man, was set for him. After a quick look at the field, Viswanath played the late cut to the very first delivery. Neither the slips nor the third man could even move before the ball hit the boundary in a flash. And what the radio commentator described was just that.

Most cricketing terms are popular today mainly due to radio commentary.

Though watching live cricket was exciting at first, I soon realised how different it was from a radio commentary.

By K.R. Nayar?Chief Cricket Writer

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