Desi Radio Commentary

I was driving to work in the morning with the radio commentary on, listening to cricket in Hindi and English alternately. Jayawardene went from being a batsman to being a ballebaaz while Zaheer bowled in English and threw in Hindi—though I noticed that Hindi commentators now spoke of ball ‘dalna’ rather than ball ‘phainkna’. I was thinking nostalgically as middle-aged fans will, of commentators past who had moved on to the great blue yonder and were now voices in the sky, literally Akashvani. The dreadful Vizzy, wonderful Pearson Surita, who spoke so posh that you wanted to cry, Chakrapani, all cut-glass lucidity, Devraj Puri who could instigate a riot with a single sentence (he set Brabourne Stadium aflame by observing on the air that the umpire had given an Indian batsman out unjustly). I had risen to the crest of a fly-over when the English commentator, one Dr Milind, made my morning. The Sri Lankans were three down for not very much, thanks to a great opening spell by Zaheer Khan. “The Sri Lankans,” observed Dr. Milind, “are on the slippery slope. With their backs to the wall."