Another Test match is underway at the MAC Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai, 4 weeks a lil too early. Just as the boxer’s day test match is a very traditional affair for the Australian cricketing fraternity so is a Pongal test match significant in the Madras cricketing calendar. Although this time we have an unscheduled test being played at Chepauk.
When I switched on the TV early in the morning and heard the likes of Gavaskar, David Lloyd, Ian Botham and L Shiva holding fort at the commentary box, I was reminded of a few of the legendary Tamil Cricket commentators on All India Radio whom I grew up listening to as a kid.
Warning: This blog will be enjoyed by only a very niche audience, an audience who appreciate Tamil and Cricket with the same fervour.
It was a pleasure to listen to one of the above commentators describe the first ball of a Test match and say, ‘Ithoo wallajah salai muniyilirunthu mudhal pandhu vissuvadharkaka Haryana Singham Kapil Dev kudhirai ottathaipola padi padiyaga vandhu seerana vegam pettru valakai vikettin mel vara pandhai veessugirar’ It just meant ‘Here comes from the Wallajah road end, the King of Haryana, Kapil Dev, running in like a horse cantering and following it up with a gallop to bowl Right arm over the wicket’.
When one was just dependent on the radio commentary and trying to visualise (mind you these were pre Hawk eye days) what was going on in the middle this was the best way to describe the first ball of a test match. We have seen many an acclaimed commentators over the years, including an alumnus of the esteemed IIM in the commentary box but I do doubt their capabilities in doing a better job than Koothapirans, Abdul Jabbars & Co to narrate the visuals to the millions of transistor dependent fans of Cricket.
In fact I’m not sure if All India Radio still does broadcast the Tamil commentary for the Madras matches which I doubt particularly in the present BCCI era when you need to pay even if you walk past Wallajah road for the rights to just hear the crowd applauding a match.
The way Abdul Jabbar describes a G R Vishwanath Square cut or a Sandeep Patil going down on one knee to cover drive the likes of Bob Willis will surely stand out as possibly the best descriptions of a shot by any standards, sometimes even better than the shot itself.
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