Commentary Diary

Cricket commentary from the comfort of a studio, and not from the ‘ground’, can be tricky. Cheers, or sighs, from the stadium can precede you by a couple of seconds as the action comes to you a wee bit late in telecast compared to commentators at the match venue. So, you have to speak with the awareness of that lost second in your head and still make it entertaining for the viewers, as if you are at the stadium.

Thankfully, people liked my commentary last year. I have also picked up a few words along the way. One such word is ‘zabardast’. My language is a mixture of Hindi, Gujarati and English. I grew up in Baroda and went to a Gujarati medium school. I haven’t learned English and Urdu the formal way. But at home, we speak a mixture of languages. I use that while commentating, sprinkling my commentary with Gujarati when it fits the situation. I’ll give you an example. The other day when Parthiv Patel­­­­­­—also from Gujarat—from Royal Challengers Bangalore was going great guns against Kolkata Knight Riders, I said a famous Gujarati line: “Todi naakhu, fodi naakhu, ane bhukko kari naakhu (break it, shatter it, and crush it to dust)”. My Gujarati brethren liked that very much, I am told. At times, I have also used Hyderabadi catchphrases. For instance, when Sunrisers Hyderabad play on home ground, I say: “Aaj Hyderabad mein falle udane aa gaye Hyderabad ke potte (Hyderabad boys are in town to have a great time today).” And when David Warner would go berserk I would say, “Aaj Hyderabad mein hungame (frenzy in Hyderabad today).”

The thing about commentating is that no matter how much homework you do, you always have to be spontaneous on live TV. You have to be on guard to assess the game that is changing in front of you. You have to think about questions like what would happen in the next few overs, what can be done, what should have been done etc. But since I have played cricket for long, it comes to me naturally.

Criticism is a natural part of commentary. Personally, I have always believed in constructive criticism. Every cricketer these days understands that criticism is part and parcel of the game. I have played with a lot of cricketers currently playing in the IPL and I’m still playing with some of them in domestic tournaments. If someone doesn’t execute a shot well, I as a commentator have to explain that to viewers. He could be Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Robin Uthuppa, who is a very good friend of mine, or Piyush Chawla. It’s a professional thing. I also appreciate that players already have a lot of pressure on them, so the criticism should not be just for the heck of it. It should be constructive, and that is actually good for players.

Commentary is not always serious stuff, it’s fun as well. An in-studio incident from last year’s IPL really cracked me. I was doing a stint with former teammate Mohammed Kaif. He was standing next to me, but I couldn’t see him because I was looking straight into the eyes of the anchor in front of me. Kaif was narrating an old story from Lucknow. I was hearing it all this while, and when I turned to look at him, I see he’s sitting on the floor and describing the details of the incident in typical Lucknowi dialect. It was so funny, the way he narrated it, that I was in splits on the show. Incidents like these keep happening during commentary. So, it’s not an out and out a serious vocation at all.