Originally Posted by Bhaveshgor:
“Yeah, they were using 3 comms at a time, would have been funny to see the Supersports feed when Ackerman was taking the mickey of Channel 9 boys not knowing how to use the technology.
McGrath was good, but was struggling to commentate with Slater and Healy.”
I was so excited about watching this game, stayed up until pretty late to catch the first session. In my mind the first hour of the opening morning is THE most engrossing and interesting period of a test match; batting's tricky (you only get thoroughbred strokes) and the new ball means that there is so much going on to keep you interested and excited.
This was almost totally, and I really mean this, ruined by the excruciating commentary of Ian Healy who was inexplicably the main commentator for the first half an hour. He wouldn't stop talking. It was a stream of consciousness which featured "banter", english which often made no grammatical sense, a massive and flagrant pro aussie bias and even talking OVER deliveries. He talked and talked and talked, adding pretty much no tactical insight, destroying the natural tension, at one point he even did a (terrible) Bill Lawry impression.
Why couldn't he let the cricket speak for itself? He was in the commentary box with Richie Benaud (much missed in the UK) and the comparison was staggering; Benaud said maybe three things in the whole half an hour, each one of them concise and insightful (about Pattinson's bowling action for example), the rest of the time he just shut up. He knew that the viewer was there to watch the cricket, which Healy clearly didn't understand. It was the first time I have ever counted down the minutes to a change in the commentary box.
I'm sorry if this seems harsh, but, I was genuinely seething after last night. I was so looking forward to relaxing and watching the test. I know commentators often get flak for talking too much but Healy was the next level last night. Just please, please shut up.