by Dancea Lipson
It’s no fun listening to cricket commentary by the new crop of West Indian commentators.
If you are a cricket fan your alternatives are to either tolerate the cringing and sustained attack on your sensibilities or watch the cricket on mute.
Just a few linguistic gems that come to mind:
- We saw him did that
- Fine leg and short leg is up
- He is a good debt bowler
- Just short of a good lengtt
- The bowler gave him too much witt
- The feeler was not in the right position
- Things have changed since the pandamic
As if these offences were not grievous enough, we have also had to contend with the voice and hairstyle of a certain Curtley Ambrose, who neither looks the part nor fits the bill. Over in England, Darren Sammy has been doing TV commentary on The Hundred, (how did he get there?), and he repeatedly talks about the inning, instead of innings. Hell, is it a West Indian thing?
These commentaries are listened to all over the world.
A few questions: who selects our commentators? What prerequisites should potential commentators have before qualifying as commentators, and being unleashed on the helpless listeners? Is a facility with the English language one of these prerequisites? Why do almost all of them seem to be coming from one particular Caribbean country?
Surely, we can do much better, can’t we? I recall listening to commentary on the most recent series involving our women cricketers and being impressed by at least 2 of the commentators, (one of whom, incidentally, happened to be the son of Viv Richards). And I thought: the cupboard isn’t bare. We can do better – if only we made the effort to seek them out.
The quality of cricket commentary from the West Indies appears to have fallen pari passu with the standard of our cricket. Mediocrity has become the standard. As we work to return our cricket to the standards of old, perhaps we can also pay attention to the standard of our cricket commentary.
Wat de RASS dis bai takin bout? Like he ah wan English duck or wat?
I find this article very derogatory & condescending to West Indian cricket commentators. Was the writer schooled at Eton & Oxbridge? Very few people speak BBC English dialect. All over the British Isles & the rest of the English speaking world different dialects are spoken. The writer sounds like he is talking like a ruling member of the British Empire.
It is one thing to correct bad grammar but is very insular to condemn a people.
Who do you do prefer to hear? I guess you prefer to hear white commentary from Geoffrey Boycott and Toni Crozier berate our players…akin to berating a people and a culture.
Bad grammar is not unique Caribbean commentators.
I find your commentary aloof, condescending… and disgusting.
We seems to ignore how bad the West Indies team are performing these days and in my opinion the commentators are doing a fine job trying to get us excited as the players are putting us to sleep (I prefer to say putting us to shame)
I have been watching West Indies v Pakistan & the commentary sounds perfectly fine to me.
That is why I watch cricket on youtube with audio on mute. The commentators sound stupid.
My despair has eased somewhat in finding that I’m not the only sufferer out there. Thank you for your column.