Disappointing cricket series

What concluded recently was a disappointing India-Pakistan cricket series. I will not say it was dissapointing cricket since both the teams had their highs and lows and one of them came out victorious in the end. But what made the viewing a painful experience was the pathetic commentary. The commentary evoked laughter in the initial stages but then it got so horrible that people (at least in the group we were watching) could not tolerate it any more. We prefered to mute the television and watch cricket with some music in the background (which did not work out because someone liked Altaf Raja's songs).

Most of the commentrators were self-proclaimed 'Gods'. They always discussed "the stategy to win" and would never comment on how the bowler bowled the ball or how the batsman played it. They kept talking about what the captain was thinking, what the coach was thinking, and what the umpire thought, and what the person in charge of the sight screen thougth. One of the oft stressed point would be 'this is an important game' ... what the heck ... every game is important, the 1st because it is the 1st, the 2nd because the team which won the 1st can take a lead, 3rd because a team can extend its lead or another can make a comeback, and the last because one team could win/draw or play for prestige. To add to the woes of the TV audience one of the commentrators was extremely biased while another was so scared of being biased that he was biased towards the other team. Of course there were the favorite phrases of some of them which I'm not sure exist in English. For example, "The ball will culr and swirl because the pitch is scruffed". This sounded good the first time, but it is difficult to hear this once every five overs. Another commentrator kept repeating "The ball is bending". He, unfortunately, confused with swing.

And there is this commentrator who @#$%* over Tendulkar. When India needs runs .. we need Thaindooolkar, when Inida needs wickets .. we need Thaindooolkar, when there is bad light .. we need Thaindooolkar, when there is dog on the ground .. we need Thaindooolkar. The only good comments are made when the cameramen shoot some pretty girls. They would talk about the shades, lipstick, earrings, hats and everything but cricket. I guess the only time we'll get to hear some sensible commentary would be during some celebrity women's cricket.