A comment on Ranjit Fernando that was around. Thanks, H, for the tip.
"I cannot for the life of me, figure out why all of you are all a twitter over poor Ranjit Fernnado's style of comentary. He is the most sought after in our hosehold which consists of my mum, my daughter and my wife, not to mention my dog. My daughter specialises in guessing the next word Fernando would utter, and usually gets about 80% right. At 7 years, she is quite bright, almost as much as Fernando himself. My mom is 65 and has a book in which Fernando's phraseology is recorded. She does this with much enthusiasm but in about 10 years of intent listening to the man she hasn't gone past the first page. My wife specialises in anticipating how Fernando would repeat or agree with everything the other man beside him would say. But what worries me is my dog, Ralph. Each time Fernando takes a bow, Ralph hares out of the house with his tail between his legs and a whine that would put the hound of the Baskervilles to shame. As for me, I couldnt care less. The man is the idiot proof version for those whose cataract ops have been long overdue. In describing what can be seen he has become quite a hit amongst the over 80's everywhere. He is like Braille to the blind! The man has his uses, he has!"
(Posted by Kewa Thalaguli on April 7, 2007 1:56 PM)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/03/31/scjohn31.xml
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4 comments:
what a post! brilliant.
that was a very valid post, SORT OF...
Excellent post sir!
Here are my thoughts.....
Anyone who speak the English language well, can spell, know the grammar and know enough about the game of cricket knows Ranjit Fernando is the worst commentator on the air today.
Ironically Ranjit has played cricket with my father (NCC), and my father says he was a good cricketer during his day.... emphasiz on "his day"! Unfortunately during that time our Sri Lankan Cricketers were minnovs... who got thrashed by the suddas and kalu-suddas alike. Yes, we did have good cricketers in the past, but the rest of the world had better ones. Not so anymore since our game has changed and we are on top of the game... The same transition has to happen in our media communications as well.... We need to find commentators from the new era, new blood with a good command in the language, the game and the wit to match the other commentators from other countries, most whom are players who left the game recently. Other than Aravinda de Silva who recently did the job during the England tour we haven't had any one from that era (he was okay but rather slow in his come back, answers and lot of dead air in bitween). This is due to the fact that no one paid any attention to help sharpen those player's communication skills, while they were still playing. I am sure everyone fodnly remember the most commonly used sentence those days by our players was "our boys did well" which I think got started with Arjuna. Most of the players had a hard time expressing themselves during interviews. However if someone was smart enough to pick on this problem and trained some of them, then Ranjit wouldn't be here today.
I remember Murali Struggling a lot back then and so did Sanath. Although they are not in current Mahela or Sanga's level, at least it shows they have improved and in the future they could do a better job, dare I say... than Ranjit!
So as much as Ranjit sucks, I also blame our system, which needs to change and adapt new thinking, just like our game has changed. Get guys trained, not only players, but others who know enough about the game. I hear Ranil has done a great job, and so has a few others mentioned on this blog... Are they not on the air because of our usual favouritism and influence I wonder...? Worse yet... What if the Sudda wants Ranjit so that they can laugh at him and make a mockery of our country... After all, our players are beating the rest of the world on the cricket field, so this could be their way of getting back at us. Either way we need to change this... at least untill Mahela and Sanga finishes their Cricketing careers and wrestle the micraphone away from Ranjit!
Interesting post posing an interesting question.
I think most of the commentators have been taking us viewers through the obvious, including Ranjit Fernando. Whereas Botham, Nasser hussain and the contingent from England tend to shelve objectivity and seemt to bat for England Ranjit is less prone to do so when he comments on Sri Lanka matches. I might have missed something though. Sometimes I feel it is best that we do not have ex players behind the mike. Aravinda Silva is a thorough bore. He might know the game but he cant comment. Perhaps Arjuna is better. However, there is no reason why commentaries should be done only by ex players.
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