This time, after we won the World Cup, I didn’t cry. I was ecstatic, I felt a lump in my throat, but the tears didn’t flow, like they did on April 2, 2011. In 2007, no one cried — neither the players nor the fans. The T20 format was brand new; that victory was about unfettered freedom, not the lifting of the burden of expectation.
When we lost to Australia in the ODI WC final six months ago, it reminded me of the failure of Chandrayaan-2. The country was ready to celebrate, the landing on the dark side of the moon seemed a mere formality, and then kaput. We had to wait for Chandrayaan-3 to taste success, just like the win this year. Both science and sport taught us a collective life lesson.
The images on TV, seconds after the match got over, were high on contrasting emotions. David Miller hugged his wife and cried his heart out. Rohit Sharma was face down on the ground. Suryakumar Yadav later told us something the commentators missed: “Everyone was emotional, and ran towards the captain. Now, the way he fell down, ate some grass off the ground and tasted some mud on the pitch…These moments will stay with me.” In that once-in-a-lifetime moment of accomplishment and sheer relief, Rohit, the G.O.A.T, had literally become a goat.
Then followed a spate of high-profile retirements: Rohit, Virat, Jadeja and Dravid. At one point I thought that Jay Shah would also put in his papers. I had a tweet for him: ‘Chak Jay India!’
Jokes apart, this also got me thinking about how Indian fans can now look forward to a very different T20 team, the next generation of ultra-aggressive kids who have grown up playing almost a different sport, a format that demands absolute fearlessness, presence of mind, tact, and which has little to do with Test or ODI cricket. Which leads us to the question: Isn’t it time that some desi commentators also thought about retirement? R Ashwin, on his podcast, called commentators the storytellers of the game. T20 cricket needs a new generation of storytellers.
Take Sunil Gavaskar for instance. Why does he turn up for every single match, in all formats? Test cricket is fine, even ODIs. But T20? He’s plain out of his depth here. And jaded. Nowadays, he gets distracted by the tiniest of things. Like when he was doing an on-field post-match show and went on a tirade, after spotting a sponsor’s logo on the national flag. Or when he got into a slanging match with his employer, Star Sports, over his comments on Kohli’s strike rate. He’d still be my first choice for Test matches. It’s soothing for the viewer as well; the same commentators lend an air of comfort and stability, especially in a vintage format they know like the back of their hands. That said, even Michael Holding bores me now, especially in the era of Bazball.
Ravi Shastri needs new metaphors. The nation is dead tired of the ‘tracer bullet’. Sidhu is so much more entertaining: at least he tries to come up with new similes and aphorisms each time he is on air. Star got him back on for the IPL but he was slotted into the Hindi combox, which I think is a waste, for he is fluently bi-lingual and should be doing both. How many commentators have a word — Sidhuism — named after them? Harsha Bhogle, at times, seems consumed by his own fluency. Dinesh Karthik, even though the English love him — him being the only Indian in the Ashes combox — is full of platitudes. But then the English adore bland.
My point is this: T20 needs its own set of commentators. Age is not a factor. Ian Bishop, for instance, is a master of his craft. He stays one step ahead of the match he’s commentating on, not least because he commentates for several T20 leagues around the world, unlike the Indians. He knows the players, and their game history and is capable of effortlessly connecting the dots for the viewer. The English Irishman, Eoin Morgan, is astute too, as is New Zealander, Mike Hesson.
Perhaps we can take a leaf out of podcasts like Australia’s The Grade Cricketer. It’s not live commentary but what Sam Perry and Ian Higgins bring to the table is like emptying a crate of Wrigley’s Spearmint into one’s mouth. It’s irreverent, passionate, smart, fresh, and generationally in sync. The pace and flamboyance of the delivery matches the tempo and fashion of T20 cricket. They slip in audacious blink-and-you-miss one-liners, just like a cheeky lap shot. Unlike fellow Aussie expert Jarrod Kimber, they don’t get over-obsessed with who runs Indian cricket.
Cricket commentary in India has become an all-format lifetime contract. It’s also 360 degrees in nature, as the same people then appear in the next day’s papers (as columnists) and a host of podcasts. In a country of a billion plus, where we have no trouble unearthing cricketing talent, how hard can it be to find talent in commentary? Come the IPL, we see the nepotistic return of peripheral voices like Rohan Gavaskar, whose only contribution is to say ‘It’s a gonzo’, every time the ball sails over the ropes for a six. Hunter Thompson and Jack Kerouac must be turning over in their graves every time he utters the phrase.
Even the pre-match show of this World Cup was lacklustre. Sreesanth was too flaky and Piyush Chawla spectacularly dull, one a crumbling stick of chalk and the other a tin of processed cheese. What we need in the refurbished combox is a mix of former players and maverick talent that comes in from the outside, much like Harsha Bhogle did once. I refuse to believe that another Bhogle hasn’t been born since. It’s also time we looked for talent outside the male of the species. The New Commentary should be a mix of gender, youth, garam masala, humour, lightening analysis that enlightens, iconoclasm, specialist T20 cricketing knowledge and the playfulness and pure joy of Henry Blofeld, he of the earrings-in-Sharjah fame. The Indian fan is desperate for new voices.
The writer is the author of ‘The Butterfly Generation: A Personal Journey into the Passions and Follies of India’s Technicolor Youth’, and the editor of ‘House Spirit: Drinking in India’. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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