A commentator is the one who provides us the running commentary of a sport event in real-time by live broadcast with media houses. The sports commentators are regarded as the backbone of any sports event. They maintain the thrill in the minds of sports fans with their voice generally in historical present tense. There are many famous cricketers who played as commentators after their retirement and choose to be sports journalists as their second career. Also there are many commentators in the field of cricket, like Harsha Bhogle, who never played cricket actively in their life, but still they have proven themselves as one of the most successful cricket commentators.
Many recently retired cricket figures like Sourav Ganguly, Adam Gilchrist and Waqar Younis are also working as guest commentators and match summarizers for multiple sports channels. After retirement from cricket, the job of commentary has proven itself as one of the best choices for the cricketers.
10 Cricketers Who Became Commentators:
Sporty Ghost has enlisted 10 cricketers who became commentators after retirement. Your constructive comments are well expected regarding the list.
1. Geoffrey Boycott
English cricketer Geoffrey Boycott was one of the most successful opening batsmen for England. In his 108 international Test matches, he made 8114 runs with 47.72 batting average. Boycott also made 1082 ODI runs in 36 matches at the average of 36.06. He also made his career at Yorkshire County from 1962-1986. Besides playing cricket, he worked as a sports commentator for Sky Sports from 1990-1998 and at BBC from 1998-2003.
Then, from 2004-05 season, he was grabbed by the Channel 4 of England. Boycott stepped into channel 5 in 2006 which he is continuing till date. Geoffrey Boycott’s appearance as a guest of BBC Test Match special from 2005 was a remarkable one.
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2. Ian Bishop
Ian Bishop is a former West Indian cricketer. He played for the team as a powerful fast bowler from 1989-1998. In his 43 test matches, he picked up total 161 wickets with an incredible 24.27 bowling average. In ODI career, he played 84 matches, took 118 wickets at 26.50 bowling average. Beside West Indies, he also played for Trinidad and Tobago from 1986-2000. After retiring from International cricket, Ian Bishop appeared as a sports commentator of Channel 4 air in England from 2000-2004.
The next year, he moved to Sky Sports which he has been continuing till now. From 2007-2009, he also appeared in Channel 5 of England. Besides English channels, Ian Bishop also played as commentator at South Africa’s SABC Television from 2005-2008.
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3. Jonathan Agnew
Jonathan Agnew is a former English cricketer and he appeared in three test matches for England National team and took four wickets. He made three appearances in ODI matches and picked up three wickets. He also played county cricket for Leicestershire from 1979-1992. During this long period, he bagged a total 666 wickets in 218 matches.
From 1990-1991, he worked as a cricket journalist for The People. He appeared as a guest commentator in BBC from 1991 till date. For BBC, Agnew worked as a cricket commentator in two spells, the one in 1999 and other one in 2006-2009.
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4. Mike Atherton
Mike Atherton is a retired English cricketer, who was a right-handed opening batsman for England. In his Test match career, he played 115 tests and scored 7,728 runs at 37.69 batting average. He played 54 ODI matches and made 1,791 runs at 35.11 average. From 1987-2001, Mike Atherton played county cricket for Lancashire and made a brief debut for MCC from 1987-1990.
He started as a cricket journalist in Sunday Telegraph in England from 2002 to 2005. From 2004-2005, he also worked for TalkSPORT. Atherton is currently working with the Sky Sports aired in England since 2005.
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5. Navjot Singh Sidhu
He is a former Indian cricketer and currently he is the Member of Parliament from Amritsar. He played for Indian National team from 1983-1999. Sidhu appeared in 51 Tests and made 3,202 runs with a batting average of 42.13. He also made 4,413 runs in 136 ODI matches at 37.08 batting average. In his first-class career, Navjot Singh Sidhu played for Punjab from 1981-2000.
He started he commentary career with ESPN Star Sports aired in India in 1999 till 2003. Then he moved to Ten Sports in UAE in 2009. In 2010, he stepped into Indian sports channel Times and still working with them.
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6. Dominic Cork
Dominic Cork was a part of England National side from 1995-2002. He was a right-handed batsman and medium pace bowler. Dominic Cork picked up 131 wickets in 37 test matches. His test match bowling average was 29.81. In his ODI career, he played 32 matches and took 41 wickets at 27.43 bowling average. In his county cricket career, he appeared for Staffordshire in 1989-90 season and for Derbyshire from 1990-2003. He stepped into Pakistan Television Corporation as a cricket commentator in 2009. He continued there till date.
Dominic Cork played his role as a guest commentator for Test match special of BBC aired in England from 2010 and still he is working with them. He also appeared as a cricket commentator for TalkSport since 2013 and for Sky Sports since 2011.
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7. Simon Hughes
Simon Hughes is a former English Cricketer and sports journalist. He was nicknamed ‘The Analyst’. He was a fast medium bowler played for Middlesex from 1980-1991, Northern Transvaal from 1992-93 and for Durham from 1993-94. In his first-class career in cricket, Simon Hughes took 466 wickets in 205 matches with an amazing bowling average of 32.48 and also scored 1,775 runs. Besides playing cricket, Hughes worked as a full time sports journalist with multiple media houses. Initially, he worked as a full-time sports commentator and column writer for The Independent and the Daily Telegraph in England.
He then made his career as the commentator for Channel 4 aired in England from 1999-2005 and then in 2006, he moved to Channel 5. Simon Hughes also put his mark for Test Match special aired in England’s version of BBC from 2007 till date.
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8. Ian Chappell
Ian Chappell is a former Australian cricketer who played for Australian national side since 1964-1980 as a successful top order batsman. His name was embossed at the ICC Hall of Fame on 9 July, 2009. He played 75 international test matches and scored 5,345 runs with an amazing batting average of 42.42. In his ODI career, he made 673 runs in 16 matches at 48.07 average.
Alongside his active cricketing career, Ian Chappell made his mark as a cricket commentator since 1980 with the media house named Nine Network broadcasting in Australia. Since 2007, he started working with ESPN star sports aired in India. Although, being a regular commentator, he also appeared as a guest commentator for Channel 5 in 2009 season of cricket.
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9. E.W. Swanton
He is a former English cricketer, a sports journalist and an author. Swanton played three matches for Middlesex in 1937-38 season and was able to make only 7 runs on board. He was more successful as a sports journalist than a cricketer in his career. He was easily recognized by his distinctive “fruity” voice. Many famous books on cricket was written by him. Among them, Elusive Victory, Cricket and the Clock Follow on etc are the remarkable ones.
In his career as a cricket commentator, he worked for BBC aired in England and worked as a Test Match special commentator from 1938-1975. He also covered various international cricket matches for BBC during 1948-1967. He was a regular writer in the Daily Telegraph in England from 1946-1975 period.
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10. Mark Nicholas
Former English first-class cricketer Mark Nicholas was a right-handed batsman and medium pace bowler. He played county cricket for Hampshire from 1978-1995. Nick was able to score 18,262 runs in 377 first class test matches with 34.39 batting average. He also took 72 wickets. In first class one day matches, he played 359 matches and scored 7,334 runs at 27.78 average.
He started his sports journalism in the Daily Telegraph published in England. He also started his career as a sports commentator in Sky Sports from 1996-1998 and then he stepped into Channel 4 in 1999. He worked there till 2005. He made a guest appearance in Nine Network aired in Australia since 2001 and Channel 5 in England since 2006.
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There are many other cricketers who proved themselves as a reputed cricket commentator. Among them Sri Lankan cricketer Russel Arnold and Aravinda De Silva, Pakistani legendary pacer Wasim Akram, Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri are remarkable. Many more cricketers will be hopefully coming in this field of cricket commentary as it has proven itself as one of the beat platforms for the cricketers after retirement.
Conclusion:
World famous cricketers such as the legendary Indian all-rounder Ravi Shastri, The Pakistani Sultan of Swing Wasim Akram and former English Test captain Tony Greig, all have been regarded as the very best commentators of the cricket world.
They are often considered as the pioneers for the cricket commentary as the world of cricket stands still when they put the mouthpiece close in the media boxes. We are giving them a true honor as we grew listening to them commentating matches since our very childhood.
