Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[Rotterdam]

Andrew Coltart irritates me with his overly Scottish accent.







Nothing to do with an ex-girlfriend having had a liaison with him prior to us meeting (the girlfriend that is)

[Villa Lew]

Ewen Murray and Nick Faldo both very good and a word for Sue Barker excelent, will be very hard to replace.

[Rory]

I’d forgotten how good a commentator Ravi Shastri is.

I find all of the Indian commentators very good. Not the most balanced but very insightful and good-humoured.

Harsha Bhogle drives me mad. But all the IPL commentators are especially iffy, lionising everyone and everything plus chucking in adverts.

I quite like Bhogle but I must admit that I was thinking mainly of the commentators who have done part-time work on tests (Shastri, Gavaskar, Dravid etc) rather than the IPL breed.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Excellent call on Dravid. SKY had him for one series and I was thinking he’d be dour, and he was anything but.

Dinesh Karthik has been mixed I think. For the one day series he was trying too hard to generate “fun”, but he dialled it back for the tests and was very good. Appalling dress sense though!

[cdbearsfan]

Good: Richie Benaud, Michael Holding, Sid Waddell, John Madden, Ted Lowe

Bad: John Motson, John Virgo, Alan Green

Staggeringly bad: Clive fucking Tyldesley

[Villa Lew]

Nobody can touch John Arlott not even Benaud.

[dave shelley]

Anyone remember Idwal Robling?  A Welshman who , I believe won a competition to become a football commentator ran by the BBC.  He was up against stiff opposition in the likes of Ed (Stewpot) Stewart amongst others.

[CT Villan]

+1 on Bill McLaren and Brian Moore
Bjørge Lillelien for his excellent rant
Special mentions for comedic effect : Murray Walker and David Coleman's Spitting Image puppet.

[dcdavecollett]

Best: Richie, Brian Moore and John Arlott.

Bad: almost all the rest.

Worst: Alan Green.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Anyone remember Idwal Robling?  A Welshman who , I believe won a competition to become a football commentator ran by the BBC.  He was up against stiff opposition in the likes of Ed (Stewpot) Stewart amongst others.

Yes. I thought he was awkward, and didn’t have good voice, a bit gravelly. Didn’t last long I think.

[Rotterdam]

I've never warmed to Tuffers on TMS. He always seems to me to be trying too hard.

[dcdavecollett]

Okay when he restricts himself to talking about spin-bowling, but too Jack-the-lad for me, otherwise.

[Rory]

I don't mind Tuffers, I can see how he'd annoy people but I think he is pretty authentic. He needs to be more confident, though, he reads the game quite well but sits on the fence too often.

He's much better than Pietersen or Swann.

[Rotterdam]

I don't mind Tuffers, I can see how he'd annoy people but I think he is pretty authentic. He needs to be more confident, though, he reads the game quite well but sits on the fence too often.

He's much better than Pietersen or Swann.

Pietersen and Swann can f*** off.

[Lastfootstamper]

And for a bloke that was allegedly asleep for much of the time, he has remarkable recall of seemingly every ball of every game he was involved in.