Pakistan Cricket Commentary

[Inacayal Tanoesoedibjo]

Bornin District Montgomery (now known as Sahiwal District), approximately 112km (70 miles) from Lahore, Saeed was brought up in a culture that revolved around sports. Named after Sir Robert Montogomery during the British rule of pre-partition India, the region has produced many cricketers and hockey players.

In addition to cricket commentary, Saeed has reported for local Urdu newspapers and is a Deutsche Welle correspondent in Pakistan. He has also done commentary on hockey matches and a Kabaddi World Cup final between India and Pakistan which made him realise how in some parts of the country, cricket was not the most popular sport.

For example, he began his career as a commentator in an era when commentators were largely cricket enthusiasts (mostly journalists and non-cricketing professionals) with little or no experience as Test or even first-class players.

Being a former player, Benaud began to comment on the strategic and technical aspects of teams, players and individual matches. This was immediately picked up by the batch of Australian commentators who joined the profession from the late 1970s and were all former cricketers.

But even by the early 1990s, when cricket commentators were almost always former Test stars discussing the strategies and technical dimensions of bowling, batting and fielding; Benaud kept pace with the evolving ways of cricket commentary and till this day remains to be one of the most popular and respected commentators.

It's interesting to note that though Benaud has survived the many changes and tides that have swept across the vocation of professional cricket commentary, many of his contemporaries who were equally famous at one time or the other, have largely faded away.

Cricket commentary in Pakistan has evolved the same way as it has in other cricket-playing nations. Two of the earliest well known commentators in the country were Omar Kureishi and Jamsheed Markear (a Pakistani Zoroastrian).

Though both Kureishi and Markear were already engaged in more well-paying professions and treated commentary as a hobby, Markear finally bowed out when he decided to become a full-time diplomat in 1965. In the following decades he would go on to represent Pakistan as an ambassador in various countries.

Consequently in 1974 Kureishi was made the manager of the Pakistan team that toured England that year. Meanwhile back home another commentator had emerged. Also from Karachi and as articulate and refined as Kureishi and Mujahid, Iftikhar Ahmed too became a Kureishi disciple.

Ahmed and Mujahid become the new Kureishi and Markear of cricket commentary. Ahmed would continue to hone his excitable style and Mujahid would compliment him with his dryer, calmer and wittier ways of commentating.

In 1978, journalist and publisher, Munir Hussain, introduced Urdu commentary. He became the first Pakistani Urdu cricket commentator when he was given short slots on PTV and Radio Pakistan in between the longer slots reserved for Kureishi, Ahmed and Mujahid during the series against India.

Just as Hindi cricket commentary had had some rather odd and funny teething problems in India, Urdu commentary too came out sounding rather odd at first, when the commentators actually tried to translate each and every cricketing term into Urdu.

But it was Ahmed and Mujahid who became stars in their own right and could now be seen signing autographs, whereas Munir was joined by Hassan Jaleel and Bashir Khan as Urdu commentary began being given more time on the air. Another English commentator who joined the ranks was Shahzad Humayun. But he faded away after a brief impact in the early 1980s.

Though Mujahid became as famous as Ahmed, he remained to be a very private person. Ahmed on the other hand, who was an extrovert, became the new Kureishi, socializing with the players and befriending them. He particularly became a very good friend and confidant of Imran Khan and often advised him on a number of cricketing matters. Muneer too befriended leading Pakistani players (especially Javed Miandad).

In the mid-1980s Mujahid, Ahmed and Munir reached the peak of their fame when they began to do commentary during the various ODI tournaments in Sharjah. It was Iftikhar who was commentating when Miandad hit that famous winning six against India in Sharjah in 1986.

As the trend of former players becoming full-time commentators began to take hold, Kureishi all but retired from the field and new cricket fans began to increasingly compare Ahmed and Mujahid with men like Benaud, Grieg, Ian Chappell, Lawry, Henry Blofeld, Ray Illingworth and Tony Lewis; whose commentary was now available more widely due to the expanding TV coverage of cricket matches.

The Pakistani who happened to be invited was not Ahmed or Mujahid, who had been dominating English commentary in Pakistan ever since the late 1970s and across 1980s; it was the former Pakistan fast bowler and captain, Imran Khan, who had retired from cricket in 1992.

Though Mujahid, Ahmed, Munir, Hassan Jaleel and a few other new (Urdu) commentators would continue to do commentating stints on radio, they were almost entirely overshadowed by international commentary panels formed and hired by various new private TV networks. These panels (that largely included former players), would travel to the countries where the networks were contracted to cover cricket series.

Ramiz has gone on to become perhaps the most well-known Pakistani commentator in international cricket. His example was soon followed by other players such as Wasim Akram, Aamir Sohail and Waqar Younis.

Some players like Miandad would continue to answer without bothering to see whether the commentator was exhibiting any interest or not, while others would get a tad perplexed and stop mid-sentence only to be asked to continue by the commentator, who would again begin to look elsewhere, prompting the guest to stop again.

New Zealand lost the match and its captain, Jeremy Coney, was invited by Iftikhar Ahmed for a post-match interview. Iftikhar began praising Pakistani bowling and asked Coney whether he thought Pakistan had the best spinners. Coney immediately flew off the handle and began to angrily crib about the umpiring.

Kardar, who loved his drink, would often arrive in the commentary box all tipsy. But he did a pretty good job until the moment when Pakistan (under Imran Khan), won a nail-biting Test (and with it the series).

Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com. He is also the author of two books on the social history of Pakistan, End of the Past and The Pakistan Anti-Hero.

After ten years of listening to international cricket matches only with English commentary, my Pakistaniat (which includes the love for our national language) was awakened again with all the excitement of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Off I went, then, in search of some place where I could still find Urdu cricket commentary.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a single source on the Pakistani media where I can hear live Urdu commentary of any cricket match, the World Cup included. In India, on the other hand, I did find at least two sources of Hindi commentary; in fact, I followed the Pakistan vs. West Indies Quarter-Final on one of them.

On a more serious note, I wish the media moguls would bring back Urdu cricket commentary because it would be good for cricket as well as for Urdu. Most Pakistanis do not understand English. And even for those who do, Urdu cricket commentary just might improve their Urdu and at least somewhat stall the decline of the national language which continues to suffer from national apathy.

dear webmaster i was searching profile on a pakistani commentator. mr omer qureshi, sorry these pages doesnot mention about umer queshi, any thing, it was more or less abouturdu commentary, any way keep website most update in futurehope users enjoy surfing these pages good luck

naseem ahmed khan, karachi/pakistan,email add...@hotmail.com

The last T20 Cup made many sit up and take notice of the new breed of female Pakistani cricket commentators. But shattering the glass partition in the commentary box has not been like batting on a bully track

Marina has also done commentary in the Pakistan and West Indies women series in 2019, as well as the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy and the National T20 the same year, and radio commentary for the PSL and the National T20 last year.

Urooj also tried her hand at Urdu commentary for PSL, but she acknowledges that it is very difficult, especially for her, because it requires you to have good pronunciation and command over the language.

Zainab Abbas, whose work was also well-received during the National T20 Cup, has not played cricket like the other three, but carries an abiding passion for the game. She also says that the presence of women in commentary and presentation panels sends a very powerful message of how things are changing around the world and in Pakistan.

Although sports presenter Sawera Pasha, who also runs her own YouTube channel, says that she enjoys sports anchoring more than commentary, she adds that by encouraging women commentators, the Pakistan Cricket Board has laid down a platform for young girls and women to express their talent and passion, both on the field and off it.

Leena Aziz was the first Pakistani woman cricket commentator. She has been working with PTV [Pakistan Television] and a few other private and government radio stations, and she has vast cricketing knowledge. The PCB, recently, also introduced several female commentators during the National T20 Cup, which is a commendable step.

Zainab Abbas, the most popular cricket host, also did commentary during the National T20 Cup. However, she is best as an interviewer. She should stick to her original role as an anchor. Sawera Pasha and Zainab Abbas both have a grip over their subject and undoubtedly they are the most likeable personalities on screen.

Eos managed to track down Leena Aziz, the pioneer female cricket commentator Aalia mentioned, in Edinburgh. She says that her journey started as a cricket writer when she was contributing articles for the The Muslim newspaper in Islamabad.

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