Neo Sports coverage of Aus vs Ind
The cricket winter is here. Never mind the global warming, but the test match kicked off as scheduled. It was a lazy Thursday and I was enjoying a cup of coffee at 9 AM glued to my TV after a long time. There was a sense of excitement, it was a holiday and I had nothing else to do till about 6 PM. I was feeling like a kid enjoying the first day of winter break. I was also at home with my ma and pa and hence there was even more reasons to become a complete couch potato. But one thing was missing, the Harsha Bhogle led team of ESS.
Neo Sports is a interface of Nimbus Production, a fairly well respected enterprise. In fact their record to produce cricket in india has been impeccable in the past decade. But managing a channel is completely different, and they clearly lack the experience of ESPN STAR SPORTS (ESS). I am not suggesting they are another doordarshan, hell no. Doordarshan was painful with 4 ball overs, pedestrian commentary team, and no quality highlight package. We had to live with melodramatic profound statements like “Bharat Parajay ki Kagar pe Khada hai” (In English: India standing at the line of defeat). Doordarshan enjoyed exclusive cricket rights to Indian cricket in early 2000’s. Neo Sports is a welcome change but its not the same experience that we enjoyed in late 90’s while watching indian cricket on ESS.
In the studio with the anchor Radhakrishnan we had Ian Chappel and Mohinder “Jimmy” Amarnath. Now Radhakrishnan is no match to Harsha Bhogle. Radha just ask questions and looks into the notes for the next question while Harsha asks the right question to right expert, participates in the discussion and is clearly in control of the situation. He is the John Dykes of Football. Radha has potential as his voice is very clear and with experience will improve dramatically. But what do we say about Mr Jimmy? I mean no disrespect for our world cup winning cricketer, but commentary is clearly is Achilles heels in cricket. Pathetic cliche’s after cliche’s, broken english and tendency to destroy a good discussion has been Jimmy’s downfall. Ian Chappel is the only saving grace in the studio as he as usual is speaking his mind out, is accurate on most predictions and is willing to share some gems with the viewers.
On the ground, the commentary team is solid. Ravi Shastri and Mark Nicholas are proven players and make a lot of sense to me. Sunil Gavaskar brings Richie Benaud type calmness to the situation, though I know its no comparison and Mr Benaud is a Bible of cricket commentary. Sivaramakrishnan and Allan Border are your regular backups that will always say the most predictable things and keep the ball rolling so to say. There is nothing wrong with the choice of commentators but there is no X factor. ESS would always have a X factor in Sidhu or Boycott and even have Gautam Bimani hanging around somewhere with some interesting news. To round up, when Micheal Clarke got out in the last over yesterday, Neo Sports went into a commercial before Zaheer Khan even made the first step towards his team mates to celebrate. This is something ESS would have never done.
If you’d like to comment on NEO Sports coverage of the current series or talk about the commentators you miss, please leave your comments and I will make sure they are heard by the Neo Sports chief in the days to come. Neo Sports hold the exclusive rights to all cricket played in India for next few years, except any ICC event.
yup ESS is where it’s at but then again on sat & sun one is torn between what to watch FI, EPL, Cricket etc…. well tmr is gonna be a tough call qualifying in the morning and first session too…
BUT COME ON BIMANI is a moron, the only reason he is on the ESS team is coz someone is doing him a favor or he knows some higly placed person in ESS…. the best combo is shastri & wasim with shz & waz they give the game a new flavor with the commetary, neo is good but they do 5 ball overs too.. come on and then the ads with the neo logo the bcci logo and tata sky logo then the screen size is reduced with the ads that to on apaid channel come on… HBO is a paid movie channel in the US make it the same here and remove the crappy ads … F**K… i hate the ads break the flow … okay am rambling now … BUt nice write up .. keep up the great work SK
yes sat and sunday get heavy with epl, cricket and the exciting times in F1. but that’s what i love about lazy weekends.
Bimani is a crazy and there is no doubt about that but what i like about him is that he knows he is crazy and is not afraid to make fun of himself on TV. How can i forget Shaz and Waz, they are the best.
“and then the ads with the neo logo the bcci logo and tata sky logo then the screen size is reduced with the ads that to on apaid channel come on” .. HA HA HA. This is so funny and so true. You make me dislike Neo even more now.
excellent, i agree with what you say completely, loved reading this
I was watching the cricket telecast between India and Australia in the 4th Test at Nagpur. Commentator Mark Nicholas comment hurt my sentiments as an Indian viewer. He made a comment at a mildly aggressive gesture to a batsman from Zaheer Khan and things to the effect that Indians were known to be mild mannered and he was unsure how rest of the world would look at touring India now with the feisstiness shown by new generation of cricketers.
I would like to point to the unprovoked foul language used by Australians and this commentator had nothing to say then, In general his commentary is extremely biased and an insult to Indians.
Just wanted to express my feeling of hurt, insult and disgust about this commentator.
@Indian Fan - but isn’t true that the new generation of Indian cricketers do a lot of talking, giving back, elbowing?
Mark Nicholas is a racist commentator and nothing less. His commentary during the Sydney test was an sbolute disgrace and his subtle comments about India and Indians is disgusting.
@Chandra: I don’t agree with that. We tend to use the word racist loosely. He may not always be pro Indian, but call it as you see it is a hall mark of a good commentator. I mean I am no fan of Mark, but he is so much better than Allan Border who is currently communicating on the series. He is dead boring.
Border looked like a crack head Hobo in the post match presentation
Leave your response!
Puja's Blog
Archives
Subscribe via Email.
Recent Comments
Most Commented
Most Viewed