July 18, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 21, 1427

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WHILE driving to my home the other day and listening to the commentary on the first Test between Pakistan and England, something just didn’t feel right. So, at home I tuned my radio to a Karachi’s FM station, set the TV volume to mute and sat back to confirm my suspicion that the commentary was not really coming from Lord’s in London.

A few minutes was all it took to realize that the FM channel took us ‘live’ to England, they actually meant ‘live via television’. Even though there was a slight lag in the television pictures at my cablewallah’s, it did not take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out that our erstwhile commentators were describing the game using TV pictures and were nowhere near Lord’s.

And then I understood why I was suspicious in the first place. It had seemed to me that the radio channel was adding canned crowd effects to their ‘show’. So while there was almost pin drop silence on the ground when viewed on TV, on the radio it sounded like the stadium was abuzz with a 50,000 strong crowd!

Not only that, some of their comments were totally out of context from a radio perspective. For example, during Mohammad Sami’s over, they suddenly announced Umar Gul’s statistics.

This coincided with a television close up of Umar Gul super-imposed with his bowling figures. In a TV context this is alright, since a viewer can understand why Umar Gul’s statistics are being shown. But on radio?

Besides, barely did the radio ever give us field placing. That is because they never saw the full picture on the ground. How common is it when relaying from the ground that a commentator will say “Abdul Razzaq at the top of his mark. Akmal standing back, two slips, a gully, third man, point, cover and mid-off on the off side, in on, mid wicket and square leg on the on. Razzaq turns, runs in, bowls...”

Obviously one will not hear this on a FM commentary broadcast from a studio in Karachi. I specify FM, because the Radio Pakistan commentary is actually being relayed from Lord’s, and the difference is evident.

Some casual investigation/confirmed that there is even a name for this kind of commentary ‘dabba’ commentary —probably meaning that it comes out of a ‘dabba’ meaning a TV set.

The icing on the cake was when Alistair Cook was dropped by Imran Farhat in the 80’s. He had a thick edge to slips but on screen it was not easy to determine at the point of contact where the ball has gone. And so the commentator said “Aur uthta hua shot (pause) our catch drop,” since it took a fraction of a second for the camera to pan from Cook to Farhat.

If one was live at the ground, the comment would have been very different since the commentator would know immediately that there was an edge and the possibility of a catch. He certainly would not have described it as an ‘uthta hua shot’ which implies something totally different.

I clearly remember that during the India-Pakistan series and during Pakistan’s tour to Sri Lanka, the commentary on FM channels was a lot more professional and definitely live from the ground.

They even had call in shows during and after the game where the caller was patched in to the stadium.

The quality of the line was not very good but at least they tried. Has it come to this now that to save money whole charade is being played out of “we now take you over to Lord’s” when all they’re doing is taking you over to their Karachi studios? And here is the best one that I saved up for the end. While introducing a new commentator, the outgoing commentator proclaimed, “I welcome him to the commentary box!” Well done FM, you have managed to pull wool over unsuspecting listeners ears!