How Urdu commentary took root in Pakistan
Munir Hussain, the pioneer of Urdu cricket commentary in Pakistan, talks to the Dawn 's Shazia Hasan about how the idea developed and panned out more than four decades ago.
Nikita Bastian
25-Feb-2013
Munir Hussain, the pioneer of Urdu cricket commentary in Pakistan, talks to the Dawn's Shazia Hasan about how the idea developed and panned out more than four decades ago.
Cricket commentary on radio and TV was always done in the English language in Pakistan until 43 years ago when the airwaves carried a new voice treating listeners and viewers to cricket commentary in Urdu. The voice behind the microphone may have sounded alien initially but it wasn’t long before Munir Hussain became a household name among the lovers of the gentlemen’s sport here.
“We used to hear hockey and football match commentary in Urdu but for cricket the commentary was always done in English. Still I took the idea of doing cricket commentary in our national language to the then General Manager PTV Aslam Azhar who along with his producers, including brothers Athar Viqar Azeem and Akhtar Waqar Azeem, decided to take my test,” remembers the pioneer [Munir]. “I had been practicing for it for a long time but they rejected me initially ... "
Nikita Bastian is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo