Cricket commentary — Indians
Until the dawn of WCC 1985, the Indian commentary field was besieged by people, who have had a mastery over the queen’s language/Hindi but lacked the playing skills or first-hand experience. Hence, we have dished out very bane commentaries and we had to endure them for a long time.
Some of them, I remember — Dr.Narottam Puri, Anupam Gulati, Kishore Bhemani, Ravi Chaturvedi, and some interesting experts (Who had 1st hand knowledge but lacked the expressive power) like Bedi (blockhole was his keyword for every 2nd delivery), C.D.Gopinath (the gentleman who faced wes hall in his prime), Chandu separate (nobody knew what he did on the field).M.L.Jaisimha (what a stylish player he was)
This character Anupam Gulati was everywhere. Once he commented on the 4x400 women’s relay event in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. half-thru he forgot the name of the Indian athletes and got away. His lucky charm was his smiling face.
A couple of them stood out for their passion; One was Abhay Chaturvedi (who covered the famous Port-of-Spain test match and wept on the mike when India won), Suave Abbas Ali Baig
Thanks to the advent of major cricketing events, we were saved from the continuous blushes and harakiri.
The radio commentators were at a different level and some of them were of world standard. Our Tamil commentary panel was outstanding.
