good one!! n first to comment!!

I think commentary should be interesting, just like story telling. Ofcourse Desi Dialogue makes it more interesting. In my opinion Navjot Singh Sidhu should be continue with his commantary talent with Radio too, not just TV. I used to hear commentary when i was kid, back then commentor were not that interesting as they should. But should be special talent to be hired for this job, who can make this RADIO COMMENTARY more interesting.

There were some excellent radio commentators in the late 1970s and 1980s: Anant Setalvad and Narottam Puri in English and Sushil Doshi and Jasdev Singh in Hindi come readily to mind. Setalvad and Doshi did the commentary for the 1977-78 Indian tour of Australia, which was when I became a cricket nut. For some reason, I felt that that combination of radio commentators was never again bettered.

LOL..

“The Sri Lankans,” observed Dr. Milind, “are on the slippery slope. With their backs to the wall."

Very interesting observation. I grew up listening to Hindi commentary by Murali Manohar Manjul - it was melodious music to my ears! What happened to him? I live in U.S. and now fondly remember his commentary. I also greatly enjoyed Sushil Doshi too.

oh if you think this is good, you haven't heard sunil taneja and manish batavia in action. they provide hindi commentary for football matches (EPL, etc)! totally unmitigated.

Since when did inciting a riot in a cricket game with commentary become such a glorified nostalgic event?

Everyone so far is talking about sub continent commentators and not being a Hindi speaker, obviously I am losing out. However, growing up in South Africa I was enraptured by Charles Fortune who liven up even the dullest game and in the late 1950's this needed doing quite often. I also enjoy the West Indian commentator Tony Cozier - great observer of the game and a pleasure to listen to.

Whenever topic on radio commentary comes who can forget Ravi Chaturvedi's famous line in 1971 when he announced that under leadership of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi India has won the match against England. Famous lines like "Yeh chale Praasd,Krronje( hindi version of Hansie Cronje) ke demaag mein darr paida karte huye.." still gives me few giggles

As a South Indian, the commentary of Doshi and Setalvad completed my Hindi education, especially numbers. To this day, you can wake me up in the middle of the night and ask me what 'ninyaanave' and 'chouraasi' translate to and you will get the correct answers (99 and 84 resp).

I also remember the excessively florid outpourings of Tamil commentators, for example 'ball missed the stumps by as fine a margin as the down on the cheek of a maiden!!'

Hindi commentary on radio immediately reminds me of delightful phrases like 'manovaigyanik dabaav'..whatever that was!

In the old Doordarshan days, we used to mute the TV & play radio commentary in Hindi or Marathi (reminds me of the excellent commentrator Bal Pandit) to accompany the video.

These days sadly we have to suffer insipid commentary by the likes of L.Sivaramakrishna, Atul Wasan etc.

Setalvad and Doshi probably introduced all those who are between 35 and 40 to cricket.In 1974,when the west indies were here i think Tony Cozier was a guest commentator for All India Radio.And when AIR got its feed from Carribean stations Dicky rutnagar was a pleasant voice to hear. Ashish Ray on TMS along with Farokh Engineer took India through to the finals in 1983 World Cup, literally as they were on air at Old Trafford when India went past England.And of course i can recall the times when searching for cricket on short wave radio I stumbled on gems like Sunil Valson running through Tamil Nadu bowling for Kerala and coverage was mainly in Tamil and at times the only words I would decipher was Valson and wicket.Infact, maybe the commentary was in Malyalam as I don't even know where it was played.

Its quite off putting when commentators (not just on radio) mix it up with their Hindi/Urdu with English midway through a sentence. This unashamed aping of the west has really got to me. What about the millions in rural areas who are just as much interested in the game. They must get infuriated with having to decipher this form of ‘Hindinglish’. I remember once someone interviewing RPSingh (I think it was Ramiz Raja) and the whole interview was a bit of a farce. If only they had conducted the interview in the common language, it would have been a nice gesture of commonality between the two peoples.

Chaps,can anyone please help!Is there an internet radio commentry (preferably in Hindi) but will accept english, that one can listen to, or perhaps digital? I have tried all india radio without sucess.I am London based.I have watched the current india series and this is the first time have i listened to hindi commentry, its so natural!

Nostalgia shouldn't make us forget that most of these local commentators were often very mediocre or worse. We laughed at them, not with them.

Sure, some of them were original, and we grew fond of them as one does of old inept or eccentric uncles.

But perhaps they were accepted mainly because we had heard none better. Their homespun quirks quickly lost their charm once Indian audiences started getting exposure to international matches telecast live from Australia and England in the 80s, when the gulf in standards became painfully evident, in delivery style and in some cases, depth of knowledge.

The events of early 1980s (India's World Cup win, the dramatic rise of TVs -especially colour TVs in urban India following Asian Games in 1982, the rise of overseas TV telecasts into India) all combined to turn radio commentary a poor cousin of the TV, and almost overnight, these household names lost their audiences in urban India.

Not before time, I think.

As others have mentioned, the combination of Sushil Doshi in Hindi and Anant Setalvad in English in the 1977-78 tour of Australia was the finest cricket commentary in India, especially when they described every alternate ball in the final moments of the series. What they brought to the table was a clear understanding of the game which other fine commentators like Jasdev Singh lacked. Dicky Rutnagur was always good. The man who now most of us despise for his attention seeking antics, Raj Singh Dungarpur sounded pretty good too. My other fond memory is the great Lala Amarnath as an expert, who came across as the no-nonsense, astute reader of the game. What he did not have was the slickness in use of the language but never indulged in verbal gymnastics that most of recent player/experts do.

i remember the Hindi TV commentator Joga Rao, commenting on the 1972 England v India test at Delhi. Lala Amarnath was the expert commentator. Ajit Wadekar played an uppish shot that very nearly got to a fielder. Joga asked Lalaji what he thought of that. Lalaji said "woh shot kafi wristy thi...etc etc". Joga shook his sage head wisely and wittered on about "Kaptaan hote hue Wadekar ko aisi risky shot nahin khelna tha". A very irrascible Lalaji then rudely interrrupted him saying "Joga ji wo shot RISKY nahin WRISTY thi. Thoda gaur se suna kijiye"!

Guys, if you all can remember, Doordarshan had initially employed the commentators who used to work for radios hence...they would repeat whatever happens on the ground, ignorant of the fact that we can also see the same thing on the TV.

e.g. Pavillion chhor (end) se apna run up start karte hue Manoj (Prabhakar), ballebaj Roshan Mahanama kaafi akarshak tareeke se drive kar diya hai mid off ki taraf, bahot hi dheemi gaaind thi dekha jaaye to Manoj ke hisaab se.. shayad chakma dena chaahte the Roshan ko but Roshan ekdam chaukanne, baaj jaise tej najar hai unki.

Translation -

Manoj starting his run up from the Pavillion end, Excellent Drive through Mid Off by Mahanama, the ball was a little slower by Manoj's standards, probably he wanted to fox Roshan, but Roshan is alert with eye sight as a hawk.

Actual Scenario-

Manoj has tried a slower one, Roshan has pushed it through the Mid - Off

In the modern days Commentators dont explain what had happened but provide insights !

This is all what we miss these days, those were the funny days of life !

the most frustating part was when AIR played really bad instrumental music if the match was delayed....you had no idea why there was no commentary....no announcement, no nothing....just the bad music.....loved sushil doshi's commentary during the englad tour in 1980 when india almost won chasing 400+....hated ravi chaturvedi on tv saying "ek rang ke sang, bharat ka score..."

Hi Guys!!

I still remember those days when the cricket test matches played outside India were only broadcasted by AIR and not telecasted. I still remember Suresh Sarriayya was the commentator along with Harsha Bhogle on the India's first tour of South Africa since their return back to the International Cricket. I still remember Suresh's voice and not to forget probably Tushar and Doshi. Are these guys still commentating?

As long as the commentary in Hindi and Urdu is restricted to hockey matches its OK, for cricket, somehow I would prefer it in English and I would like to hear some good commentators and not the lousy ones.

Ranjit Fernando and Laxman Siva Rama Krishna are the two very painful and unpleasant commentators to any body's ears. They both put up a phony accent especially Ranjit who not only sounds phony but, it appears that he has got a frog in his throat. He loves stuffing synonyms and adjectives in his comments which are not commonly used in everyday usage and he keeps on repeating it. Like sometime back I remember he got stuck with: "eludes, eluding and eluded", in that match he must have used this eluding word at least 30 times in 10 minutes. Also, his south Indian accent such as, "Sin-gal" for Single and "V-Cut" for wicket. And, sentences like, "Thee cra-oood is sob-dooed at thee moo-ment."

And Laxman Siva Rama Krishna is even funnier, he chirps like a South Indian Cuckoo or a Coucal. He tries to sing instead of speaking and without any rhyme or reason suddenly he would burst out in a very incoherent noise, singing out of tune, in a flat mode with an irritating and persistent four note "Bo-ko-ta-ko" cuckoo's call for a mate. He looks so funny when they show him giving the pitch report, you'll always see him wearing a miss-match suit and a tie from the 1928 era and in that hot humid 40C temperature, he is seen wearing a woolen blazer or a suit and, he looks like a scare crow in the middle of the ground. The irony is he thinks he is very smart and good looking Babu Saab.... :-) Once, before the pitch report he was shown on the ground without his jacket and he was not aware that he is on the TV with audio video in put on and he was not singing, he was talking normally and then he got a signal that its time to go live and he hurriedly wore his jacket and started rehearsing his ahem, ahem, and asking the camera man if his hair looks OK? It was so funny to see him doing all that and suddenly switching from his talking mode to singing mode. :-) The other commentator from India who talks about "occasion" and "what the doctor ordered" is Arun Lal. He too should learn how to talk. He is a very sterotype commentator. Sanjay Manjrekar and Ravi Shastri are good commentators. In fact Sanjay is better than Ravi.

As for Pakistan, only Rameez Raja is OK, the rest are lousy. But, Rameez's vowels are very flat he says; "Aay-gray-shun" for aggression, "Aik chewlly" for actually and "Bay-sst" for best and so on...... the bad thing about Rameez is he airs his frustration when Pakistan is playing badly, there is no need for him to air his loud thinking. He is a commentator first and Pakistani second. And the less you talk about the arrogant "Amir Churail" the better it is.

Kass Naidu of S.A.is not only smart but its good for a change to see female commentators in Cricket. Dean Jones, Tony Greg and Jeff Boycott are indeed very good. I reiterate Dean is the best. Boycott's Yorkshire accent and his sinister sarcasm also makes him interesting and Tony Greg's screams are often dramatized especially when he screams like this, "Oh my God he has pulled it for a mighty six, and its high up in the air and its going.... going..... " then....the anti climax .."Oh the ball landed inside the rope and there is a fielder there and he only manage to scampers a single"!

Talking of Tamil commentators there was Mani and Abdul Jabbar. And the dulcet English tones of Balu Alaganan. In fact, the AIR radio commentators of yore, only strutted their stuff on their home turf; commentators changed for each Test. In Bombay, you had the great Vijay Merchant always going on a trip down memory lane, and later Fredun de Vitre. And how could one forget to mention the irascible Bobby Taleyarkhan. Thankfully Australia is still a country where radio commentary is loved, and "Cricket on the Radio" is one of the well-recognised catch cries signalling the arrival of summer. The ABC's legendary Jim Maxwell and his team including Peter Roebuck, Glenn Mitchell and the irrepressible Kerry O'Keeffe are airtime guests at many a home during the lazy summer months. The ABC's radio commentary of the Aussies' Indian tours (beginning from 1998), are unmatched for the way they brought the drama right into our living rooms, with the mysterious scorer "Mr. Subramaniam", elevated to superstardom Down Under.

I want to become a Hindi Cricket Commentator like Sh. Sushil Doshi. I grew up listening Sh. Sushil Doshi from my childhood and since I have been copying his commentary. But I don't know how to achieve my goal of becoming a Hindi Cricket Commentator for Radio.

Could you give me the address of Sh. Sushil Doshi so that I can meet him personally.

Kindly also advice me, How can I proceed further in this matter.

Thanks and Regards

S.K. Chitra
9871643667

I sushil doshi for what he said in of the tests India was playing with Zimbabwe.
Flower brothers were on the crease for almost a day and Doshi said "Dono bhai pitch pe iss tarah jamey hue hain ki lag raha hai jiase pitch pe do phool kkhile hue hon"......now thats some crative stuff...

I remember Sushil Doshi commentating while Marvan Attapatu made his debut in test matches (that horrific series of noughts he had).

Inane stuff but more fun than today's "commentary", if one can call it that. More like everyone (ex-players and non-players) is lecturing at an unwanted cricket tutorial. Completely miss the atmosphere of the game. Their only variations are raised voices with a six and anger at the technical deficiency which caused the batsman's dismissal.

Bring back the likes of Setalvad...and please, no Harsha Bhogle and his vocal narcissism.

He went something like this "Atta-pattu crease pe aayein hain. Pehli geind kumble ki or unhone bade atpate tarike se khela hai....aur weh out!"

Another time when England was touring India in 1993, they had a wicketkeeper batsman called Richard Blakey who made his debut at Chennai.

In his first innings, he was at considerable pains to decipher the web of spin Kumble, Chauhan and Raju spun around him. he lasted 20-odd balls before being dismissed without opening his account. Sushil Doshi was on air as Blakey walked to the crease...for want of any worthwhile description of his cricketing prowess, he went something like this to his listebers "naam to unka Blackey(pronunciation) hai, par dekhne main to ek dum gore chitte hain."

i am hindi commentator.I have a record for speak 100 names of cricketers name in only 45 seconds.i have two years experiance on aakash vani delhi cendra.and i want to commentary for world cup on tv..plz help me...............

If I recall, V.M. Chakrapani emigrated to Australia and worked for the ABC. The best Indian commentator in English, ever. I for one, would love to hear a compilation of those old voices...

I had the occasion to sit in the commentators box as OSD AIR with Anant Setalvad,Commander Verma,Sushil Doshi,Manish Deb and expert commentators Polly Umrigar and Dilip Sardesai during 1975-76 India vs Sri Lanka unofficial test match.

i am in the usa where can i listen to live commentary aus vs india on the internet as i am unable to afford to buy the game cable.

i am in the usa where can i listen to live commentary aus vs india on the internet as i am unable to afford to buy the game cable.

We have forgotten P.Anandarao. It was the Sankranti day during the England v/s India at the Chepauk in 1973 .In those days immediately after the tea break ,the Overseas Service of the All India Radio would broadcast the cricket commentary. On that day the match was at a crucial phase and the English had just started their innings , when he overseas listeners joined us. Mr.Rao decided to impress the overseas listeners ( I presume there would many English listeners) .In a prepared text he started "Today is Sankranti. The farmer gets up early in the day......." Mr.Anand Rao proceeded to describe the Sankranti rituals and thereafter the earlier happenings in the field . This went on for about almost 15 minutes. During this time there were huge roars from the crowds on 2 occassions . Mr.Anand Rao paused for a second and continued with his speech leaving every one in suspense. After his speech he announced in a matter of fact voice that the play was going on and England were 11 for 2