The art of sports Commentary

Yesterday, I was working out and simultaneously watching the Champions League T20 game between the Cape Cobras(CC) and Bangalore Royal Challengers(RCB), when I suddenly realized that providing commentary is an art in itself. Even if the ongoing game is not interesting, a good commentator can inject life into the game for the audience.

The game mentioned above was not really enthralling for the first 12 overs or so. However, Harsha Bhogle – one of the most respected commentators in the game – was at his eloquent best. It looked like Robin Uthappa, one of the openers for RCB was courting lady luck. He was lucky on numerous occasions, as everytime hit he the ball in the air, it landed short of a fielder. On one such occasion, he played a pull shot and it landed in between 3 fielders. Harsha Bhogle could have showcased his oratory skills by letting out a series of adjectives describing the moment. However, he chose to explain some geometry and how the ball fell at what was the centre of a triangle formed by the three different fielders approaching it.

On another such occasion, he made the comment, “You viewers can forget your idlis and dosas, just focus on Uthappa now“. Another comment describing how lucky Uthappa was; “Robin Uthappa should go to the highway and stand in the middle and the way he is going, he might stop a speeding truck“. Luckily for him, he did not have to keep springing up these amazing dialogues throughout the match, as it soon got interesting.

But, in-spite of having lost my interest in cricket quite some time back, it was one of those days when I enjoyed watching the game, all thanks to Mr. Bhogle.