Top 5 cricket commentators
The pleasing insights of Richie Benaud and Tony Cozier are now anachronistic. Today's cricket commentary is a combination of repeated clichés, mere surface analysis, undue criticism and unvarnished anecdotes. Commentators with their dull narrations create a yawning atmosphere for the audience watching from their television sets. Heck, they even turn cricket into piffle with their awkward blunders and extraneous comments. There's a dire need for good commentary panels. We desperately need them if the sport is to retain its charm.
But what constitutes a good one?
For starters, a good commentator is one that is able to combine his cricketing expertise and flair for the language to guide his spectators and provide a deep analysis by covering all aspects of the game, and the game alone. With their witty nonchalance sans exaggerated comments, a good commentary panel keeps the audience engaged and the game alive.
Here we take a look at 5 of the best commentators in world cricket.
1. Mark Taylor
With Bill Lawry getting older, tomorrow's Channel Nine commentary team will not boast of many good commentators. The likes of Michael Slater and Ian Healy seem more like ardent fans of the Australian cricket team than commentators. There is far too much banter from the Nine commentators about their careers from the "good ol' days" at the expense of insightful analysis. Their inside jokes are hardly any useful for the international audience.
However, there is one commentator that stands out and that is Mark Taylor. Tubbs as he's affectionately called found a seamless transition into the Nine Network commentary panel with his dry sense of humour and strategic insights into the sport.
Giving his balanced and impartial perspectives; he does his home-work well before speaking and is never afraid to speak his mind out on even the most controversial of matters. Generally considered as one of the most erudite commentators of the era, there is little doubt that Taylor will be the chieftain for Channel Nine in the coming years.