All India Radio Comms in the late 60s 70s
dodo
Asiad), cricket comms on All India Radio had a nice local character.
Usually the commentators were selected by the local AIR. Much less
professional than Harsha Bhogale, and the current lot.
I was chatting with my dad the other day and trying to remember the
names of these local comms. HEre is a list I came up with
Calcutta (Kolkata): Pearson Surita, Berry Sarbadhikary, Kishore
Bhimani
(by far the most grammatically correct English)
In Bengali: Chuni Goswami
Madras: Anand Rao, R. Balu Alagannan, some guy called Wilson
(Anand Rao was famous for continuing his stories about the Mambalam
Mosquitos ... meanwhile three wickets have fallen)
Delhi: Narottam Puri, Anupam Gulati,
(these guys became more national as time went by)
Bombay (Mumbai): Suresh Saraiya, Anand Setalvad, AFS Talyarkhan
(Again these guys became national)
Hindi Comms: Ravi Chaturvedi
(He seemed to go on all tours for a while, along with Suresh Saraiya).
Suresh Saraiya went on a NZ tour (AIR carried NZ comms along with
Suresh), and then to the West Indies (the 1st time I heard advertising
on the radio, with Modi Continental tires sponsoring the comms from
the West Indies).
Please add your reminiscences.
==========
t u s e n e t @yahoo.com Loony Tunes
"dodo" <dod...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5c8da115.0407...@posting.google.com...
>
> Calcutta (Kolkata): Pearson Surita, Berry Sarbadhikary, Kishore
> Bhimani
> (by far the most grammatically correct English)
> In Bengali: Chuni Goswami
>
> Madras: Anand Rao, R. Balu Alagannan, some guy called Wilson
> (Anand Rao was famous for continuing his stories about the Mambalam
> Mosquitos ... meanwhile three wickets have fallen)
>
>
> Delhi: Narottam Puri, Anupam Gulati,
> (these guys became more national as time went by)
>
>
> Bombay (Mumbai): Suresh Saraiya, Anand Setalvad, AFS Talyarkhan
> (Again these guys became national)
>
> Hindi Comms: Ravi Chaturvedi
> (He seemed to go on all tours for a while, along with Suresh Saraiya).
>
> Suresh Saraiya went on a NZ tour (AIR carried NZ comms along with
> Suresh), and then to the West Indies (the 1st time I heard advertising
> on the radio, with Modi Continental tires sponsoring the comms from
> the West Indies).
>
> Please add your reminiscences.
I also remember a Subash Mashruwala
lt
Ramakrishnan G
"dodo" <dod...@yahoo.com> wrote
>
> Calcutta (Kolkata): Pearson Surita, Berry Sarbadhikary, Kishore
> Bhimani
> (by far the most grammatically correct English)
Is it true that Gautam Bhimani is his son?
> In Bengali: Chuni Goswami
>
Did Chuni Goswami do commentary on Cricket?
Numero Uno
Jasdev Singh and Sushil Doshi
Afzal A. Khan
Pearson Surita was also a newspaper columnist. He would
back the Lala against Hazare as captain. Anglo-Indian.
Would pronounce Indian players' name in a funny style.
G. R. Sunderam would be "SunDe - Raam". Ghulam Ahmed
would become "gulam~aa'med".
Berry Sarbadhikari. Technically detailed but studious -
sounding. Probably a lifelong bachelor. Was staying in
a cheap Bombay hotel opposite Crawford Market. One day,
he jumped from his third floor room and committed suicide.
This was sometime in the late sixties, I think.
Kishore Bhimani and Chuni Goswami came on the scene much
later.
In Madras, there was another guy, Chakrapani. Of course,
they would be appearing at most of the Test venues. One
of these South Indian commentators (I can't remember who
exactly) would speak in a sad monotone. When an Indian
player would get out bowled, he would intone in the saddest
possible fashion : "Bowled him, Saar, bowled him". The
reference was to the bowler. One expected him to burst out
in tears almost any minute thereafter.
Narottam Puri and Anupam Gulati also came on the scene much
later. Puri's father was also a commentator. It was the
latter who was chiefly responsible for inciting the crowd to
riot in a Bombay Test where the Lawry-led Aussies ultimately
claimed victory. Another one was Saradindu Sanyal. While
Narottam Puri (a medico) sported a moustache, Gulati had a well -
trimmed beard and was quite "prosperous-looking".
AFS Talyarkhan was the seniormost amongst them all. A Parsi
who had a rather sonorous voice. Apart from Cricket, he was
also a connossieur of race-horses. Every year, when the
young foals would be auctioned, he would be the Chief Auctioneer.
He was the foremost commentator in the forties and ealy fifties.
Would insist on being the sole commentator and refused to share
the mike with any other. Later, when it became the norm to have
a panel of commentators, he walked out in a huff and never did
commentary again.
Ravi Charturvedi had the build of a wrestler and would wear
outrageous tees.
Anand Setalvad was a noted statistician also.
You seem to have forgotten or omitted another imporant name,
Dicky Rutnagar, another Parsi. His favourite haunt was the
West Indies. Probably got settled there.
There was another Parsi guy who used to be a part of the
panel in the eighties, along with Jaisimha and Pataudi Jnr. etc.
His name slips my memory now. He used to practice in the
Bombay High Court. Later, he became a producer of Hindi
TV Serials.
A. A. Khan
Trapper
"Afzal A. Khan" <me_a...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:4106DDFD...@privacy.net...
>
> There was another Parsi guy who used to be a part of the
> panel in the eighties, along with Jaisimha and Pataudi Jnr. etc.
> His name slips my memory now. He used to practice in the
> Bombay High Court. Later, he became a producer of Hindi
> TV Serials.
Ferdun De Vitre ?
Trapper
enjoyable.
V.Ramamurthy was a very good comm in Tamil. In a weird way
the quote from him that I remember most is when he was compering
the highlight show for Asiad 82. After the 7-1 debacle (thanks Mr.Negi)
he said sadly, "Pon kidaithalum kidaikkum, Budhan kidaikkadhu enbargal,
Budhan kidaithathu, anaal Pon Kidaikavillai'
(this will lose much in trnsalation so I won't even try)
Shishir S. Pathak
news:4106DDFD...@privacy.net...
<snip>
> There was another Parsi guy who used to be a part of the
> panel in the eighties, along with Jaisimha and Pataudi Jnr. etc.
> His name slips my memory now.
Are you thinking of Fredun de Vitre? I think he was/is a Goan Christian,
not a Parsi, but I could be wrong.
There was this chap called Bal J. Pandit who used to commentate in Marathi,
mostly the Ranji games that were played at Wankhede (the ones which Bombay
usually won, but still their crap players like Raju Kulkarni and Laloo
Rajput didn't get an extended run in the Indian side.)
Cheers, Shishir
<snip>
Take it easy
news:QfBNc.199399$XM6.148450@attbi_s53:
> V.Ramamurthy was a very good comm in Tamil.
He is the only one good in Tamil I guess. Actually I heard him in
English (in one ODI I guess) once. He was pretty good in English too.
Sad that he passed away.
Does he come under late 60s and 70s category? I heard him in 80s only.
Takeiteasy [remembering TV muted and radio tamil commentary on]
[snip]
Sanjay Khadilkar
"Shishir S. Pathak" <ANTIshishir_p...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2mo5u7F...@uni-berlin.de...
Bal Pandit, yes I remember him. He used to commentate Maharashtra's Ranji
matches as well. If I remember it right he also commentated on some Test
matches that were played in Mumbai. There was another guy Sureshchandra
Nadkarni who would do the English commentary along with Bal Pandit.
Falandaz (Batsman) , Golandaz (bowler), Yashtirakshak (wicket keeper) wow I
can remember some of it.
Sanjay
dodo
> >
> > Before TV became popular across the land (which was after the 82
> > Asiad), cricket comms on All India Radio had a nice local character.
> > Usually the commentators were selected by the local AIR. Much less
> > professional than Harsha Bhogale, and the current lot.
> >
> > I was chatting with my dad the other day and trying to remember the
> > names of these local comms. HEre is a list I came up with
> > SNIPPED
> > ...
> > Please add your reminiscences.
> >
> > ==========
>
>
> Berry Sarbadhikari. Technically detailed but studious -
> sounding. Probably a lifelong bachelor. Was staying in
> a cheap Bombay hotel opposite Crawford Market. One day,
> he jumped from his third floor room and committed suicide.
> This was sometime in the late sixties, I think.
>
I think this was a bit later.
> ....
> In Madras, there was another guy, Chakrapani. Of course,
> they would be appearing at most of the Test venues. One
> of these South Indian commentators (I can't remember who
> exactly) would speak in a sad monotone. When an Indian
> player would get out bowled, he would intone in the saddest
> possible fashion : "Bowled him, Saar, bowled him". The
> reference was to the bowler. One expected him to burst out
> in tears almost any minute thereafter.
I believe Chakrapani emigrated to Australia, after a tour in the
sixties. DOn't remember him, but have heard others talk about him.
> AFS Talyarkhan was the seniormost amongst them all. A Parsi
> who had a rather sonorous voice. Apart from Cricket, he was
> also a connossieur of race-horses. Every year, when the
> young foals would be auctioned, he would be the Chief Auctioneer.
> He was the foremost commentator in the forties and ealy fifties.
> Would insist on being the sole commentator and refused to share
> the mike with any other. Later, when it became the norm to have
> a panel of commentators, he walked out in a huff and never did
> commentary again.
AFST had a show on Mumbai Doordarshan for a while. (Along with Cricket
with Vijay Merchant on Vividh Bharati, the only cricket shows for a
long time ... till Doordarshan started doing stuff with people like
Atul Prem(a)Narayan, Fredun DeVitre, etc.
My Fredun Devitre memory is his Asiad commentary ... remember him
going gaga over a Filipina sprinter Lydia DeVega, and his
pronunciation of Thai and Indonesian Names (A name "Lukman Niyode"
stands out for some reason in the memory).
>
> Ravi Charturvedi had the build of a wrestler and would wear
> outrageous tees.
>
> Anand Setalvad was a noted statistician also.
Other statisticians were Anandji Dossa and
>
> You seem to have forgotten or omitted another imporant name,
> Dicky Rutnagar, another Parsi. His favourite haunt was the
> West Indies. Probably got settled there.
>
Dicky moved later to Britain, and used to write even relatively
recently for the British papers.
> There was another Parsi guy who used to be a part of the
> panel in the eighties, along with Jaisimha and Pataudi Jnr. etc.
> His name slips my memory now. He used to practice in the
> Bombay High Court. Later, he became a producer of Hindi
> TV Serials.
>
>
> A. A. Khan
Farokh Engineer did a stint commentating in India when England and
West Indies visited, before moving back permanently to England. I
remember a particularly hilarious stretch of him commentating in very
anglicized Hindi during an ODI against West Indies (when WI toured
INdia after losing the EC final)
Sanjiv Karmarkar
> Bal Pandit, yes I remember him. He used to commentate Maharashtra's Ranji
> matches as well. If I remember it right he also commentated on some Test
> matches that were played in Mumbai. There was another guy Sureshchandra
> Nadkarni who would do the English commentary along with Bal Pandit.
Bal (baaL) Pandit was awesome; his knowledge of the game was excellent;
and he used to come up with the most interesting stats during games.
He was very witty; full of puns.
Bal Pandit has several books to his credit. I remember I used to have a
book of cricket anecdotes; very entertaining.
> Falandaz (Batsman) , Golandaz (bowler), Yashtirakshak (wicket keeper)
more: chaukaar (4 or boundry), shatkaar (sixer), zel (catch),
firki (spinner), chendu (ball), faLi? (bat), yashti (stumps) etc.
Were there terms for offspin, legspin, etc?
> Sanjay
Sanjiv
Sanjiv Karmarkar
> Suresh Saraiya was one of my faves. Very detailed. But also
> enjoyable.
Yes, Suresh Saraiyya was very entertianing; but he was also
notorious for making a large number of mistakes. His most famous
mistake was repeatedly calling Chandrashekhar's googly an Armer.
He was a lot of fun to listen to though; a welcome diverson from
the highly anglicized Talyarkhans and Tarpores.
Sanjiv
Shishir S. Pathak
news:710d6aa5.0407...@posting.google.com...
Dhaava (runs), madhyam gati chaa golandaz (medium-pacer).
> Were there terms for offspin, legspin, etc?
Don't remember.
Cheers, Shishir
xss
> > panel in the eighties, along with Jaisimha and Pataudi Jnr. etc.
> > His name slips my memory now.
>
> Are you thinking of Fredun de Vitre? I think he was/is a Goan Christian,
> not a Parsi, but I could be wrong.
Bawa, I think. He used to host this show called Sports Round Up
on Bombay DD. A Jack of All Sports commentator - I remember him
as a likeable but boring guy. Kept prattling on.
There was a Milind Something or the other, with a beard. He kept
statistics in the beginning, then went on to commentate in English
and Marathi. Atrocious bugger. Should have been shot. He once showed
up at a local tennis ball tournament in the neighbourhood and commented
in Marathi over a microphone. What's the point? We could all see what's
going on. Suru Nayak also showed up. He got a duck IIRC. We all laughed
at him.
s.
Sanjiv Karmarkar
> Before TV became popular across the land (which was after the 82
> Asiad), cricket comms on All India Radio had a nice local character.
> Usually the commentators were selected by the local AIR. Much less
> professional than Harsha Bhogale, and the current lot.
>
>
> I was chatting with my dad the other day and trying to remember the
> names of these local comms. HEre is a list I came up with
>
>
> Calcutta (Kolkata): Pearson Surita, Berry Sarbadhikary, Kishore
> Bhimani
> (by far the most grammatically correct English)
> In Bengali: Chuni Goswami
>
> Madras: Anand Rao, R. Balu Alagannan, some guy called Wilson
> (Anand Rao was famous for continuing his stories about the Mambalam
> Mosquitos ... meanwhile three wickets have fallen)
>
>
> Delhi: Narottam Puri, Anupam Gulati,
> (these guys became more national as time went by)
Narottam Puri was simply awesome. He is one of the best i've
ever heard, in any sport!
> Bombay (Mumbai): Suresh Saraiya, Anand Setalvad, AFS Talyarkhan
Bobby (AFS) Talyarkhan would have been great if he wasn't so godamned
partial. His hatred for Wadekar and Gavaskar bordered on cruelty.
Raju Bharatan was the same way, although I'm very happy to note that
Raju Bhratan was man enough to come around in the winter of his
career. When fianlly Bobby admitted of Gavaskar's greatness, he kept
on insisting that all he meant was that Gavaskar should never open
and should have be a middle order bat. Bah! Not the way I heard
it in the 70s.
Then there was some guy with Tarapore or something who always had
a cigar in his mouth when he spoke, and no one understood a word
he said (and most were afraid of admitting that). Suresh Saraiya
was so much fun to listen to although he used to make a lot of mistakes.
> Hindi Comms: Ravi Chaturvedi
> (He seemed to go on all tours for a while, along with Suresh Saraiya).
Ravi chaturvedi was once caught saying some very bad things about
Bengali people on air! During a Calcutta test, he though his mike
was off. He was talking to his fellow commentators in Hindi about
how useless the Bengalis were when it came to getting anything done,
and he was using some choice Hindi curse words!
Wasn't there a great statistician sometime in the 70s who had
all stats on his fingertips? Cannot remember his name though.
Sanjiv
Sanjiv
dodo
Yes. He also played Ranji cricket for Bengal.
Afzal A. Khan
And there would be Marathi commentary too at times.
Though I don't know the language, one item that
lingers in the mind is this : When a batsman was
being obdurate, the commentator would say something
like "ghorpaRi saarkha chikaTla hota". I am sure someone
would give the correct and complete version.
Afzal
dodo
> >
> > Before TV became popular across the land (which was after the 82
> > Asiad), cricket comms on All India Radio had a nice local character.
> > Usually the commentators were selected by the local AIR. Much less
> > professional than Harsha Bhogale, and the current lot.
> >
> > I was chatting with my dad the other day and trying to remember the
> > names of these local comms. HEre is a list I came up with
> >
> > Calcutta (Kolkata): Pearson Surita, Berry Sarbadhikary, Kishore
> > Bhimani
> > (by far the most grammatically correct English)
> > In Bengali: Chuni Goswami
> >
> > Madras: Anand Rao, R. Balu Alagannan, some guy called Wilson
> > (Anand Rao was famous for continuing his stories about the Mambalam
> > Mosquitos ... meanwhile three wickets have fallen)
> >
> > Delhi: Narottam Puri, Anupam Gulati,
> > (these guys became more national as time went by)
> >
> panel in the eighties, along with Jaisimha and Pataudi Jnr. etc.
> His name slips my memory now. He used to practice in the
> Bombay High Court. Later, he became a producer of Hindi
> TV Serials.
>
>
> A. A. Khan
Some more names from an article on the web
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000922/art-trib.htm
================================================
Sight & Sound
Doordarshan's unsporting life
by Amita Malik
IN the early days of broadcasting AIR had a solid team of sports
commentators who had carved a niche for themselves. Pearson Surita and
Berry Sarbadhikary in Calcutta, A.F.S. Talyarkhan in Bombay, Melville
de Mellow, Nobby Clarke, Surajit Sen and Devraj Puri, father of
Narottam Puri, were accomplished and popular sports commentators. I am
sorry I cannot remember anyone from the South because the Garrulous
Vizzy used to operate from the North. These were fluent all-rounders,
some of them were AIR newscasters who were connoisseurs of sport, who
had their fan following, knew their games and were extremely
competent.
<Rest snipped>
Sailesh Krishnamurthy
Sanjiv> Bal (baaL) Pandit was awesome; his knowledge of the game
Sanjiv> was excellent; and he used to come up with the most
Sanjiv> interesting stats during games. He was very witty; full
Sanjiv> of puns.
Is one of the books a short Marathi piece on Palwankar Baloo ? I
vaguely remember Guha mentioning it as one of his first primary
sources in "Corner of a foreign field" .. which is a fascinating read.
--
Pip-pip
Sailesh
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~sailesh
Afzal A. Khan
I think Melville de Mello was a regular (English)
newsreader. Somehow, I don't seem to recall Nobby
Clarke. Wasn't there an English left-arm paceman of
that name ?
Surajit Sen and Vizzy had a bit similar, heavy voices.
Although he has been panned by so many people, I liked
Vizzy's commentary -- he had a very clear diction, would
usually refer to a zero or duck as a "blob".
About Devraj Puri, a former Ranji Trophy pace bowler,
I had once posted details of how he caused a riot at
Bombay's Brabourne Stadium in the late sixties.
A. A. Khan
Amol Cricketwallah
> dodo wrote:
> >
>
> sounding. Probably a lifelong bachelor. Was staying in
> a cheap Bombay hotel opposite Crawford Market. One day,
> he jumped from his third floor room and committed suicide.
> This was sometime in the late sixties, I think.
>
Hmm. Wasnt aware of this about Berry. He's written a few books on
cricket too IIRC.
>
> AFS Talyarkhan was the seniormost amongst them all. A Parsi
> who had a rather sonorous voice. Apart from Cricket, he was
> also a connossieur of race-horses. Every year, when the
> young foals would be auctioned, he would be the Chief Auctioneer.
> He was the foremost commentator in the forties and ealy fifties.
> Would insist on being the sole commentator and refused to share
> the mike with any other. Later, when it became the norm to have
> a panel of commentators, he walked out in a huff and never did
> commentary again.
>
Yes, Ive been told he was amazing - most older guys Ive talked to
say he was the finest cricket commentator India has ever had. An
amazing knowledge of the game, and very good descriptively - and
would do the entire day without any trouble whatsoever. After a
while IIRC he started doing some stuff with Vijay Merchant as
"expert"? But he stopped when it turned into a "15 minutes of
commentary before you make way" business.
He still had a column in Mid-day, for years - the doyen of Indian
cricket commentators. A bit of an iconic figure, is even mentioned
in Salman Rushdie's "Moor's Last Sigh" as "the famed cricket
columnist AFST with his acerbic wit". Wrote a daily column dealing
with sports in general for Mid-day almost till his death IIRC.
> Ravi Charturvedi had the build of a wrestler and would wear
> outrageous tees.
>
> Anand Setalvad was a noted statistician also.
>
> You seem to have forgotten or omitted another imporant name,
> Dicky Rutnagar, another Parsi. His favourite haunt was the
> West Indies. Probably got settled there.
>
Was a big fan of Dicky, the best commentator of the 70s that I ever
heard IMHO - so much better than others like Suresh Saraiya and
the rest. He moved to England by the early 1980s IIRC, and was a
cricket correspondent there for some newspapers. Wrote for the Daily
Telegraph even in the 1990s - in fact he covered Tendulkar's match
against Warne in Madras for the Telegraph even as late as 1998.
> There was another Parsi guy who used to be a part of the
> panel in the eighties, along with Jaisimha and Pataudi Jnr. etc.
> His name slips my memory now. He used to practice in the
> Bombay High Court. Later, he became a producer of Hindi
> TV Serials.
>
Fredun DeVitre you mean? Remember him most from the 8:00pm sports
show on Bombay DDI - cant quite remember the name.
BTW, nobody has really mentioned Sushil Doshi - by far the best
Hindi commentator of the 1980s. Jasdev Singh forsooth. I remember
getting hold of a video tape in the mid-90s of some silly India-SL
test match, ball-by-ball - the only saving grace (which thrilled
me to bits) was to be able to listen to Sushil Doshi once again,
this time commentating on TV for a little bit. And he used his
famous "kaliyan ka upyog" and "manovaigyanik dabav" and "balle
ka bahari kinara lete hue" too - I enjoyed it so much I ended
up watching it 3 or 4 times, just to listen to those words he used
to thrill us with on the radio thru the early 80s.
Sadiq [ there was even a "baal baal bache" ] Yusuf
>
> A. A. Khan
t u s e n e t @yahoo.com Loony Tunes
"Amol Cricketwallah" <cricke...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a374a779.0407...@posting.google.com...
> famous "kaliyan ka upyog"
which ones, "kachhi kaliyan" or the ripe kind ;)
Ramakrishnan G
> Hindi commentator of the 1980s. Jasdev Singh forsooth. I remember
> getting hold of a video tape in the mid-90s of some silly India-SL
> test match, ball-by-ball - the only saving grace (which thrilled
> me to bits) was to be able to listen to Sushil Doshi once again,
> this time commentating on TV for a little bit. And he used his
> famous "kaliyan ka upyog" and "manovaigyanik dabav" and "balle
> ka bahari kinara lete hue" too - I enjoyed it so much I ended
> up watching it 3 or 4 times, just to listen to those words he used
> to thrill us with on the radio thru the early 80s.
>
I offer a few whenever Sushil Doshi comes up. You will find me saying this
in the archives too but here they are again.
"Tendulkar tendue ki tarah lapke"
"Tendulkar ko ab gend football ki tarah dekh rahe honge"
"Gend tappa khane ke baad ruki"
"Darshakon mein apeksha. Romaanch ka vatavaran." and 10 minutes later
"Darshakon mein romaanch. Apeksha ka vatavaran"
t u s e n e t @yahoo.com Loony Tunes
>
> "Amol Cricketwallah" <cricke...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> >
> > BTW, nobody has really mentioned Sushil Doshi - by far the best
> > Hindi commentator of the 1980s. Jasdev Singh forsooth. I remember
> > getting hold of a video tape in the mid-90s of some silly India-SL
> > test match, ball-by-ball - the only saving grace (which thrilled
> > me to bits) was to be able to listen to Sushil Doshi once again,
> > this time commentating on TV for a little bit. And he used his
> > famous "kaliyan ka upyog" and "manovaigyanik dabav" and "balle
> > ka bahari kinara lete hue" too - I enjoyed it so much I ended
> > up watching it 3 or 4 times, just to listen to those words he used
> > to thrill us with on the radio thru the early 80s.
> >
>
> I offer a few whenever Sushil Doshi comes up. You will find me saying this
> in the archives too but here they are again.
>
> "Tendulkar tendue ki tarah lapke"
> "Tendulkar ko ab gend football ki tarah dekh rahe honge"
"Tendulkar ne gend to antim kshan tak dekha, aur itminaan se silly mid-off
ke taraf halke se khel diya"
"do kadam aage badhe aur gend ko ucchaal diya"...aur ye chakka
"wicket lene ke G-Tod koshish"
> "Gend tappa khane ke baad ruki"
> "Darshakon mein apeksha. Romaanch ka vatavaran." and 10 minutes later
> "Darshakon mein romaanch. Apeksha ka vatavaran"
"darshakon mein uttejana, romaanch ka vatavaran" aur "baarish hone ki
sambhaavana"
Afzal A. Khan
Amol Cricketwallah wrote:
> He still had a column in Mid-day, for years - the doyen of Indian
> cricket commentators. A bit of an iconic figure, is even mentioned
> in Salman Rushdie's "Moor's Last Sigh" as "the famed cricket
> columnist AFST with his acerbic wit". Wrote a daily column dealing
> with sports in general for Mid-day almost till his death IIRC.
And the column would always end with :
"Do you get me Steve ?"
A. A. Khan
Mulligan
> > "Amol Cricketwallah" <cricke...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > >
> > > BTW, nobody has really mentioned Sushil Doshi - by far the best
> > > Hindi commentator of the 1980s. Jasdev Singh forsooth. I remember
> > > getting hold of a video tape in the mid-90s of some silly India-SL
> > > test match, ball-by-ball - the only saving grace (which thrilled
> > > me to bits) was to be able to listen to Sushil Doshi once again,
> > > this time commentating on TV for a little bit. And he used his
> > > famous "kaliyan ka upyog" and "manovaigyanik dabav" and "balle
> > > ka bahari kinara lete hue" too - I enjoyed it so much I ended
> > > up watching it 3 or 4 times, just to listen to those words he used
> > > to thrill us with on the radio thru the early 80s.
> > >
> > I offer a few whenever Sushil Doshi comes up. You will find me saying
this
> > in the archives too but here they are again.
> >
> > "Tendulkar tendue ki tarah lapke"
> > "Tendulkar ko ab gend football ki tarah dekh rahe honge"
>
> "Tendulkar ne gend to antim kshan tak dekha, aur itminaan se silly mid-off
> ke taraf halke se khel diya"
> "do kadam aage badhe aur gend ko ucchaal diya"...aur ye chakka
> "wicket lene ke G-Tod koshish"
>
> > "Gend tappa khane ke baad ruki"
> > "Darshakon mein apeksha. Romaanch ka vatavaran." and 10 minutes later
> > "Darshakon mein romaanch. Apeksha ka vatavaran"
Sushil Doshi was once doing tennis commentary for one of the Davis Cup games
in the late-80s. Ramesh Krishnan ws playing someone.
His cricket avataar got the better of him and here was a gem.
"Sundar shot aur ye ball Tappa le-kar baseline se bahar"
"read this in the same way as -- aur ye sundar shot, ek tappa khakar - ball
side boundary line ke bahar - chaar run"
ScorchIndian
How about this from V. Ramamurthy:
ThoL Kandaar thoLe kandaar
But
Kim Hughes
Tholvi kandaar tholviyE kandaar
S [unable to translate the first part]
R. Bharat Rao
> > who had a rather sonorous voice. Apart from Cricket, he was
>
> say he was the finest cricket commentator India has ever had. An
Bah! Nobody, but nobody, matches up with the won and wone-ly,
Damodar Mudaliar.
Bharat [who still fondly remembers when Vishy was batting, an "Oh
my God" followed by 3-4 minutes of chatter about this and that
regarding how beautifully Vishy was batting, and then followed
by "Now taking guard" only at which point did we realize that someone
was out, still not sure who. The next comm got the mike a minute
or two later, and hastily told us that Vishy had been bowled Julian
for 48 or some such..]
Atul Thombre
How can you guys have not mentioned V. V. Karmarkar. He used to always
accompany Bal J. Pandit. [This fellow, Bal J. Pandit, is never
referred to as Bal Pandit, its always Bal J. Pandit. :-)]
There were some more terms that these guys used to use that were pure
Marathi, but what I never understood were the terms for the off-stump
and the leg-stump. The middle-stump was always 'madhli-yashti [thank
god], but what is 'ujavi-yashti' [right stump] and 'daavi-yashti'
[left-stump]. Is this from the POV of the bowler/umpire or the
Batsman/Wicket keeper?
Still confused.
Atul.
Atul Thombre
> dodo wrote:
> >
> About Devraj Puri, a former Ranji Trophy pace bowler,
> I had once posted details of how he caused a riot at
> Bombay's Brabourne Stadium in the late sixties.
>
>
> A. A. Khan
Are you talking about the same riots that were caused when a
commentator criticized the umpire for a wrong decision?
If you are, then the commentator was AFST not Devraj Puri. I may be
wrong, but, that what I remember reading somewhere. After that AFST
was banned from the commentary box of AIR forever.
Maybe Sadiq can shed some light on this.
Atul.
Atul Thombre
> "dodo" <dod...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:5c8da115.0407...@posting.google.com...
> > Before TV became popular across the land (which was after the 82
> > Asiad), cricket comms on All India Radio had a nice local character.
> > Usually the commentators were selected by the local AIR. Much less
> > professional than Harsha Bhogale, and the current lot.
> >
> >
> > ==========
>
Wasn't Jasdev Singh a Hockey commentator? Or Am I confusing names here?
Atul
Atul Thombre
Are you referring to Milind Wagle? He sure sports a beard. He is more
recent, I think. He is currently doing the commentary in the current
Asia Cup on AIR.
Atul.
Jayen
For several years in Madras, college variety entertainment programmes
used to feature a parody of a particular commentator. It used to go as
follows. <2sp> is a 2-second pause and <1sp> is a 1-second pause.
Patil<2sp>
Sandeep Patil<2sp>
Sandeep Madhusudan Patil<2sp>
Tall Patil<1sp>
Lanky Patil<1sp>
Handsome Patil<1sp>
Sandeep Patil<1sp>
Sandeep Madhusudan Patil<2sp>
Sandeep Patil<2sp>
Patil<2sp>
Patil on 99. Will he get that single? Will he reach the landmark that
has eluded so many so often? Will he reach there?
and so on.
Any idea whether there really was a commentator like this?
Regards,
Jayen
Shishir S. Pathak
news:34bf3a90.04072...@posting.google.com...
I'd guess you are thinking of one Gurdev Singh.
Cheers, Shishir
Afzal A. Khan
No, it was Devraj Puri all right. AFST had ceased to be
a commentator much earlier. This incident happened in
1969 (or 1970 ?) when the Aussies toured India under
Bill Lawry. It was a pretty ugly riot, at the Brabourne
Stadium. If you do a Google search (for this NG), I am
sure you would find my detailed post.
And D. Puri was in fact debarred from the commentary-box.
A. A. Khan
dodo
Jasev singh was a very good hockey commentator, and came to cricket later.
xss
>
> Are you referring to Milind Wagle? He sure sports a beard. He is more
> recent, I think. He is currently doing the commentary in the current
> Asia Cup on AIR.
That's right. Milind Wagle. Should be shot, if you
ask me.
s.
xss
> > >
> > > Wasn't Jasdev Singh a Hockey commentator? Or Am I confusing names here?
> >
> > I'd guess you are thinking of one Gurdev Singh.
> >
> > Cheers, Shishir
>
>
> Jasev singh was a very good hockey commentator, and came to cricket later.
I know of a Jasdev Singh who used to commentate for the
Republic day parade.
s.
xss
> was off. He was talking to his fellow commentators in Hindi about
> how useless the Bengalis were when it came to getting anything done,
> and he was using some choice Hindi curse words!
Wasn't it Ravi Chaturvedi who once got excited at India's
win over somebody, and started shouting "Bharat mata ki jai!
Indira Gandhi ki jai"?
s.
Vijay Kumar K
All these are the same Jasdev Singh. He also has an Olympic Gold medal -
not as a sportsman, but for services to Sport. Indira Gandhi was another
who was awarded the Olympic Gold medal for services to sport. IIRC, both of
these were in relation to the '82 Asiad.
Vijay
Lenin Maran
Peace,
Lenin
12k...@gmail.com
> Before TV became popular across the land (which was after the 82
> Asiad), cricket comms on All India Radio had a nice local character.
> Usually the commentators were selected by the local AIR. Much less
> professional than Harsha Bhogale, and the current lot.
>
>
> names of these local comms. HEre is a list I came up with
>
>
> Calcutta (Kolkata): Pearson Surita, Berry Sarbadhikary, Kishore
> Bhimani
> (by far the most grammatically correct English)
> In Bengali: Chuni Goswami
>
> Madras: Anand Rao, R. Balu Alagannan, some guy called Wilson
> (Anand Rao was famous for continuing his stories about the Mambalam
> Mosquitos ... meanwhile three wickets have fallen)
>
>
> Delhi: Narottam Puri, Anupam Gulati,
> (these guys became more national as time went by)
>
>
> (Again these guys became national)
>
> Hindi Comms: Ravi Chaturvedi
> (He seemed to go on all tours for a while, along with Suresh Saraiya).
>
> Suresh Saraiya went on a NZ tour (AIR carried NZ comms along with
> Suresh), and then to the West Indies (the 1st time I heard advertising
> on the radio, with Modi Continental tires sponsoring the comms from
> the West Indies).
12k...@gmail.com
Suresh Saraiya? Well he survived with his re-definition of what a "RUNNING COMMENTARY" is.
How can one forget V.M. Chakrapani who left AIR to join Radio Australia.
In Indore, there was one Mr.Narayan.
Who can forget whis whis....Vizzy!