Barney Ronay, in his blog in the Guardian, does a take on Channel 9's coverage of the first final of the CB Series between Australia and India in light of Matthew Hayden's controversial comments about Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma.
Happily for Channel 9, we got what everybody wanted 10 minutes in. "One of the great clashes," Ian Healy announced solemnly. "Sharma and Hayden." Jabbing murderously at his crease Hayden looked, as ever, like an anvil-jawed, gorilla-chested Marvel Comics superhero dressed up in a green nylon leisure suit. Sharma, on the other hand, could pass for a sensitive youth from the scholarship set with a passion for 19th century Romantic poetry and playing the bassoon. On the back of his shirt he had "Ishant", which sounds like the peg for an interminable Two Ronnies sketch. Something along the lines of "Can you tell me the name of this bowler?" "Ishant." "There's no need to be like that." "I'm telling you, Ishant." Repeat until laughter track has hysterics.
And over in The Age, Paul Toohey says he is finding Mark Nicholas increasingly tiresome to listen to.
Nicholas feels it his duty to lick the boots of his fellow commentators as if they were gods with his skin-crawlingly admiring questions. He treats standard shots executed by Australian batsmen, or throws to the stumps by Australian fielders (even ones that miss) as though their actions have been personally guided by the hand of the Almighty.
