The generation who have
grown up listening to radio often nostalgically talk of radio commentators of
the past.Having listened to commentary of matches on crackling short wave radio
in their childhood or youth, they recall the commentators like Brian Johnston,
John Arlott, Allan McGillivray, Omar Qureshi,Devraj Puri and Vizzy. However the
serendipitous find one made twiddling with the short wave radio has come to us
in a new avatar.On the internet and more easily through the smart phone one can
access numerous Medium and FM stations.The commentary is smoother and even with perils like buffering, normally of good
quality.
This medium has
introduced me to whole lot of commentators. Jonathan Agnew and Simon Mann of
the BBC, Jim Maxwell of ABC,Brian Waddle from New Zealand, Fazeer Mohammed and
Andrew Mason from the West Indies and Natalie Germanos and Aslam Khota from
SABC’s Radio 2000 are all my new finds discovered after having discarded my
last Short wave radio.Extra pleasure comes from the radio jingles and
advertising spots, especially on the Caribbean stations and Radio Sport New Zealand.
These help in knowing the preference of people from different cultures.
The fact that I can
check on scores and match details on Cricinfo actually enhances the pleasure.I
followed several of last year’s t20 world Cup matches from Russia via internet
on SABC Radio as BBC TMS feed was available in the UK only.While PBC commentary
feeds are available on the net All India Radio is still to surface.However,
being based in Delhi means the smartphone can also double up as an fm radio and
live coverage of India games are available.
