Ravi Shastri and a galvanising animosity

Chief cheerleader-cum-nightclub doorman for the IPL and India's most visible TV commentating presence, Shastri has become a strangely central figure in new-era cricket, the personage who most clearly embodies the attitude and style of the branded global game as it turns its face towards its largest market. It has taken some time for a new tone and timbre to inveigle itself into the post-Benaud broadcasting vacuum. But hold on to your hats, something's got to give because he's firing on all cylinders: Shastri is perhaps the closest thing we have now to a reigning voice of cricket.

All these factors have increased the danger of the commentators turning into defenders of BCCI policies. This seems to have happened with Shastri, who didn’t respond to Outlook’s attempts to talk to him. The dashing commentator was a member of the icc’s Cricket Committee, which, in May this year, unanimously recommended the use of Decision Review System (drs) in all Tests, odis and Twenty20s. He never raised a dissenting voice then. But, as a commentator, Shastri is a vehement, aggressive opponent of the drs. During the second Test, he said on air that those who criticised India’s opposition to drs were jealous of its success. This led to a sharp exchange, again on air, with his colleague in the box, Nasser Hussain.