Anyone who watched the January 11 Twenty20 match between Australia and South Africa would have been delighted by the addition of new blood to the Australian cricket team in the form of David Warner and Ben Hilfenhaus.
Another match delight was the addition of Adam Gilchrist to the Channel Nine commentary box. He was calm, collected, insightful, professional and funny.
Gilchrist is an all-time great Australian cricketer and is beloved by the public. He would be a marvelous alternative to Mark Nicholas as the next Benaud-style front man for Channel Nine.
Nicholas is slick and undoubtedly a nice guy, if not cringe-worthy at times. But an Australian legend would be better and Gilchrist fits the mould.
Alongside Gilchrist and Nicholas in Nine’s Commentary box for this ‘Rock’n’Roll form of cricket’ were the generation-next commentators in Mark Taylor, Michael Slater, Shane Warne, Ian Healy and James Brayshaw.
With the impending retirements of Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry, Tony Greig and Ian Chappell, Channel Nine have to get the ratio of boofhead to respected commentators right.
In this instance there were far too many boofheads.
Some of the best quotes of the night came from Mark Taylor and Michael Slater who were a little bit too excited. When David Warner struck his first six of the night Mark Taylor yelled “That won’t be his first six of the night, oh wait, yes it will be his first six of the night”.
Then Michael Slater tried to compare Warner’s potential greatness to that of Shane Warne by adding “It’s the first six letters in his last name that worry me.”
Now these are all harmless slips of the tongue, but after an hour of boofheads, it’s a pleasant shock to the system to hear a Gilchrist or a Benaud finally talk again.
LeftArmSpinner
Roar Guru
Gilly's not nearly smooth or sharp enough to make the Benaud job his.
Hoy
Guest
I think that the older commentators offer so much more insight into what is going on than the newer politically correct commentators. Chappell gets there and says what he is thinking, and what should be happening is this... Tubby, Healy and Slater all get there and try to make it exciting, and crack jokes about each other, but just sit on the fence with no real insight. Especially when we lost the two early tests to SA. Chappell and Greig and Benaud were all saying that changes had to be made for the future, and heres why, and why doesn't Ponting do this... and the the new three were saying that there was no reason to panick. I would think that the first series loss on home soil for 16 years is a reason to come fairly close to panick. In my eyes anyway. Alarm bells should be ringing a little. I will watch/listen to Warne with great interest, and see if he can come up with real insight as well, or just toes the Australian line of everything is OK.
Michael C
Guest
Alas, love 'em or hate 'em, all those friends of Kerry 'job for life' commentators such as Benaud, Lawry and Greig, they really, really have been the sound of cricket for a whole generation of Australians (me included - - as due to a non-cricket household, sadly, I mostly missed the WSC era and 79/80 as a 10 year old was the first series that I seriously remember. For almost 30 years now - - these fellows have always been there. It'll be a very different season without that trio.........because..........even now, a 12th man album can be listened to and understood by a younger generation if only that we have to explain that there was a cricketer called Zaheer Abbas (double decker bus) and Azeen Hafeez(with Hafeez hand missing).
Amateur Hour
Guest
In the interest of afternoon naps, can ch9 please put Michael Holding on some sort of permanent retainer for the test series?
MrCricket
Guest
My preffered commentary team would be: The Good Ones: Gilchrist, Warne, Benaud, Nicholas The Average Ones:Slater, Chappell, Taylor Ones To Get Rid Of: Healy, Greig, Brayshaw (He & Healy ruined my T20 coverage)
Ben
Guest
the sooner tony greig and ian chappel retire the better, and hopefully a quiet sacking of healy - probably the worst and most one-eyed commentator ever to grace the ch9 microphone bill lawry is still worthwhile - but we definitely need him to get back to a bit of commentary on the local seagulls and a bit more of the 'It's all happenning here at the SCG!!'
Hoy
Guest
That is a bit harsh isn't it Sunnycoast? Slagging off Tendulkar? I haven't read the offending bit of literature, however from all accounts I have heard from friends, he is merely saying that he was suprised that Tendulkar didn't tell the truth about Monkeygate. His train of thought was that if Tendulkar spoke the truth (that Singh called Symonds a monkey) then the thing would have blown over as Singh would have been found guilty fullstop. Is that about right? What sort of drama queen action are you talking about with the moral highground?
sunshinecoaster
Guest
No thanks After slagging off the great Tendulkar and carrying on like a drama queen by grabbing the moral ground when it suited him he clearly does not have the class or respect of a Benaud.
Nick (KIA)
Guest
Yeah maybe, but he needs to develop an interesting speech impediment if he's going to really shucksheed. And how would he look in the cream, the bone, the white, the off-white, or the beige jacket?