Cricket gets a Tamil flavour

Sports commentary, especially cricket commentary, isn’t easy. One needs to be well informed, witty and spontaneous to excel. It is also a medium where an instant connect is established with the viewers. It would be a blatant lie if a cricket lover says he wouldn’t have imitated Tony Grieg or David Lloyd or Harsha Bhogle or even Ravi Shastri. 

However, sports commentary had a glitch — the English language. In a move to eradicate the language barrier and bring the game closer to the fans, Star Sports launched their Tamil channel — Star Sports Tamil 1 — last week, with the likes of RJ Balaji, K Srikkanth, S Badrinath and H Badani don the role of Tamil commentators. 

While Balaji dons the hat of a host, the former players take the expert’s role. “I am not always the one who is going to ask questions. I host it from a viewer’s point of view, like, for example, how had Dinesh Karthik been given one more ball, he could have completed his century instead of declaring his innings on 94 (in the practice match against Bangladesh). What I strive to bring is a connect with the fans. People shouldn’t feel the need to mute the commentary when they watch the match. What I bring to the table is the concept of using words from our day to day usage, instead of sticking to the lesser known Tamil words. For example, instead of panthuveechalar, I would prefer to use bowler, as everyone can relate to it,” Balaji said. 

According to Balaji, keen observation is a must to get closer to the audience. “Fans like it when we notice and talk about how the umpire’s clothing colour changes, how he dons a weapon like we saw in Baahubali (referring to the arm guard) and how the cameraman at the ground focusses only on women and children. People love it,” he added. 

The 31-year-old isn’t alien to talking about the game. “Cricket is a part of all our lives. I have been doing radio commentary for the last 10 years, be it for IPL or any match that India is a part of. This isn’t new for me and I enjoy talking about cricket,” he noted. 

Balaji is proud of the fact that his ‘partnership’ with Srikkanth has been the talk of the town. “He made me feel at ease. He is the expert, yet, he asked me to just talk about my views. And this partnership has clicked,” he concluded.