Don Bradman Cricket 14 General Discussion

[blockerdave]

You poms can have Mark Nicholas back. He's about as exciting as a wet (racist) fish.

One of my all time favourite commentators is Harsha Bhogle. I'd pair him up with Bill Lawry, Bumble and Richie. If Tony Greig was still alive he'd be up there as well.

The rest of the Pommy commentators (bar Strauss) aren't much chop IMO. Same with the Aussies.

My thing with TV commentating is that I'm watching TV...I know what is happening and I know a bit about cricket so a TV commentator should be there to excite, build tension, etc. Not just blabber on about rubbish and verbalise what I can already see. The commentators these days all seem to have gone to the same school and as a result all sound the same - dull and lifeless.

not really heard a lot of Bhogle, i guess because the main chance for me to hear him would be during world tournaments and i'm not a huge watcher of limited overs cricket in general really. but yeah he's seemed good when i've heard him.
i like ramiz raja too.

i strongly disagree about your opinion on the "Pom" commentators. Atherton and Hussain are outstanding. Atherton is in general one of the best cricket journalists around, spoken and written word. his times articles are brilliant.

 

[cooks1st100]

Michael Holding and Bumble for me. I used to like Warne when he first began commentating but I feel he has actually declined

 

[scratch978]

Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi shastri are best commentators.

 

[ChinamanSpin]

Atherton is in general one of the best cricket journalists around, spoken and written word. his times articles are brilliant.

He can write about absolutely anything and I am hooked. He and a couple of other sports writers are the only reason I still get The Times. The rest of it is as boring as 505's "apologies" for AC13.

It actually makes me wonder why I bother because I can easily get his articles on the Times website.

Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi shastri are best commentators.

 

[blockerdave]

He can write about absolutely anything and I am hooked. He and a couple of other sports writers are the only reason I still get The Times. The rest of it is as boring as 505's "apologies" for AC13.

It actually makes me wonder why I bother because I can easily get his articles on the Times website.

yeah i subscribe to the website, you're right in general it's a pile of poo but atherton and some of the other sports scribes are still very good. their whole cricket department actually is good, the cricket central blog area they have is very good - Ed Smith writes quite a bit there too.

for me the test of a good commentator is, if you were listening to only them, would you get bored? bumble is great but he works well in that team where he adds a lot of colour and light relief - though his deeper analysis is still spot on too - though i am not sure i'd want to listen to him all day. atherton and hussain i don't think i'd ever get bored of.

 

[Guybrush Threep]

i strongly disagree about your opinion on the "Pom" commentators. Atherton and Hussain are outstanding. Atherton is in general one of the best cricket journalists around, spoken and written word. his times articles are brilliant.

Admittedly I havent heard a lot of them, but they seem to be focused on the negatives a lot and there isn't much change in the tone of their voice. Starts to get a bit monotonous to me.

I forgot about Michael Holding. I really enjoy listening to him also.

 

[ChinamanSpin]

atherton and hussain i don't think i'd ever get bored of.

I can sit through hours of coverage during a rain break as long as those two are on. Genuinely enlightening at times. If Botham and Warne are on I usually switch over and watch Celebrity Come Dine with Me.

for me the test of a good commentator is, if you were listening to only them, would you get bored? bumble is great but he works well in that team where he adds a lot of colour and light relief - though his deeper analysis is still spot on too - though i am not sure i'd want to listen to him all day.

Commentators who really annoy me are ones who pretend they know everything and everyone should listen to them. Botham and Warne sit there talking knowingly about having 4 slips, a third man, short leg, silly point and a leg slip. Pause for a second and think about how many combined test wins as captain they got...

 

[kizla12]

You poms can have Mark Nicholas back. He's about as exciting as a wet (racist) fish.

One of my all time favourite commentators is Harsha Bhogle. I'd pair him up with Bill Lawry, Bumble and Richie. If Tony Greig was still alive he'd be up there as well.

The rest of the Pommy commentators (bar Strauss) aren't much chop IMO. Same with the Aussies.

My thing with TV commentating is that I'm watching TV...I know what is happening and I know a bit about cricket so a TV commentator should be there to excite, build tension, etc. Not just blabber on about rubbish and verbalise what I can already see. The commentators these days all seem to have gone to the same school and as a result all sound the same - dull and lifeless.

Totally agree. There is actually nothing wrong with periods of no talking (especially when you have nothing informative or interesting to say). Listening to the sounds of the game is great. Something the English commentators used to do when it was on the BBC.

 

[supasachin]

Saurav ganguly is pretty good

 

[Lebanna]

Totally agree. There is actually nothing wrong with periods of no talking (especially when you have nothing informative or interesting to say). Listening to the sounds of the game is great. Something the English commentators used to do when it was on the BBC.

I actually think it was Atherton several years ago (iirc it was when the cricket switched from C4 to Sky) gave an interview about being a commentator. Among other things he said exactly that.

 

[kizla12]

I actually think it was Atherton several years ago (iirc it was when the cricket switched from C4 to Sky) gave an interview about being a commentator. Among other things he said exactly that.

Athers has always had a sound technique.

 

[The_Pharoah]

I actually enjoy the banter that goes on during a test match (ie. between the commentators). Imagine you're there for hours on end over possibly 5 days doing this over say 2 months...what else are you going to talk about? I do like that they've shipped some of the english commentators to Aust for the Ashes (eg. Bumble) although I found some of them just joined the 'lets bash England' crew eg. Michael Vaughn. In England during the 3-0 loss, you didn't hear Shane Warne doing the same. Well I didn't anyway.

 

[ethybubs]

what else are you going to talk about?

THE CRICKET MATCH! The game of cricket that is being played directly in front of them, the one thing they are there for! These are people that are paid to talk about the game of cricket that is being played now, not banter and reminisce about the "good old days" with stories that are only interesting, or funny, to the people who were there, and you ask "what else are they going to talk about?" You good sir are the perfect example of what has gone wrong with cricket in the last 5-10 years with your 20/20's and your exited commentators! Why don't you learn what cricket is actually about!

 

[Ajh1977]

Can't say I agree with the people that dislike warne and Botham, I like them, but its my opinion. Absolutely agree with Atherton being right up there, I think if in future versions bigger named commentators are goin to be involved, especially if big ant can add two or three per yearly release so by DB18 we've got a international commentary team, I'd like: Atherton, Lawry, Ian Smith, Tony Cozier/Michael Holding, Robin Jackman/ Shaun Pollock, and unfortunately as I'm not a 20/20 fan or ODIs for that matter I'm not familiar with Indian/Pakistani commentators, but Sunil Gavaskar has always come across well when I've heard him, and as people have mentioned Ramiz Raja then I'd probably go for him or Wasim Akram. If in future DB could get some if those guys it would be great. Bumble and 12th man, would be my favourite though!!

 

[fiction]

I would love to hear Rahul Dravid's commentary.