Make a script of cricket commentary,
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Answer:
Explanation:
Subash Jayaraman (SJ): Hello and welcome to Couch Talk. Today’s guest is cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle. We talk about the preparation that commentators do before matches, the quality of on air TV commentary, and also about the lack of discussion about spot fixing scandal on air as the issue surfaced.
Welcome back to the show, Harsha.
Harsha Bhogle– Thanks, Subash!
SJ– It is my pleasure having you on again.
Let’s talk about cricket commentary on TV.
How do you prepare before a Test series and how is it any different from how you prepare going into the IPL or any other T20 match or any other limited over match. If so, how and why?
HB– You don’t prepare specifically, because you are seeing scorecards. You are following cricket and you have some idea of what is happening. You have stats people. You don’t say that you specifically prepare like for an exam any more. But suddenly you say “oh my God, Dhawan was in the 2004 U-19 team. Let me see who else was on it.” and you go and check. The other thing is that in India, a lot of us have been pampered by the likes of Mohandas Menon. I don’t want to sound like a fan-club, but I think he contributes to a commentators’ performance by 25, 30, 35%. Because you know that people like Mohan are around, you tend to not prepare as much, to be honest. Because you know that you can just call him up. even when I was in England and we were getting ready for Champions Trophy, I sent him a mail before going to bed and in the morning I got all the numbers I wanted, because I had a theory that the Pakistani batsmen play India better that the rest of the world.
To put a long story short, you don’t need to prepare specifically for a series unless something strikes you. You do read the scorecards from around the world and you have some idea.
To be fair, you should. I have been talking about what a fine talent Kane Williamson from New Zealand is. I looked up and found that he averages 31 in Tests and said, “hang on here, I must have missed something. He must be better than 31.” Things like that hit you sometimes when you don’t prepare for it.
SJ– So, the approach to going on air whether for a T20 match in IPL or for a Test match is pretty much the same for a commentator?
HB– IPL – I do prepare at the start of the season because there are so many players. What helps in the IPL is that I do a 3 or 4 part programme on CNN-IBN before the IPL starts – looking ahead to the season. I am forced to analyse things. Once you do that before the IPL starts, then you are OK as the tournament goes along. You don’t have to do match-to-match, because it is 3 hours and as a lot of you love to point out, there is a lot of commercial activities during the telecast. So, you actually don’t look at a lot of stats.
SJ– I always like to compare how cricket is run from an administrative point of view, how it is played or described to the fans with other global sports. Since I happen to live in the USA, I compare it with the commentary of an NFL or NBA or a baseball game which kind of is also 3 – 3.5 hour games with two people doing the entire commentary. You have one colour guy, one guy calling play by play. Why don’t we see that in T20 games such as in the IPL? We saw something similar to that in the big Bash league on FoxTel, where they have a 2 man team for the entire duration of a T20 match.
HB– Fair call. I have not watched a baseball game. How long does a baseball game run? About the same time as a T20 game?
SJ– Exactly. Yes.
HB– I don’t know. We talk too much on radio, maybe. On TV, I don’t know. We came down from 5 to 3 (commentators) in one year in the IPL. The producers didn’t seem to like it. They went back to 4. 4 works alright. Anything more than 4 is a waste of time.
But here at the Champions Trophy, for tomorrow’s final [at the time of recording], and for the semi-finals, we got 9. Half the time we are just hanging around doing nothing. For 50 over game 4 will do, 5 is good enough. For a T20 game, 3 are enough. If viewers don’t like a particular combination, like when say someone says “Harsha and Sanjay are a pathetic combination, we want to escape it.”, then you at least have rotating combinations.
SJ– My question is even more fundamental. Why have so many people? Especially in T20 games. Have just two people for the entire game. that’s it. One guy who comes from journalism background and has the experience of leading the conversation, does his homework…
HB– What a good man you are, Subash, to even suggest that! Nobody is talking about journalists who can lead conversations in commentary any more. I take your point. You should be able to get by with 2, but we have things like pitch reports, toss, etc, that you need someone to do the pitch report and the toss and the commentary has already started. Maybe that could be a reason?
Answer:
subash jayaraman sj hello and welcome to coach talk