Sky Sports commentry

[Beny]

Is anybody else getting really anoyed with the bias and often stupid commentry of these guys. They can't seem to do anything else other than pick holes in the Aussie team and praise their English side, sometimes blindly. You can understand that there will always be a bit of bias in the commentry from another country but this is just rediculous. They've already claimed the Ashes and I'm getting sick of hearing the cheers from Nasser Hussain when an Aussie wicket drops. I know that they we're talking about this on Ch7 where the entire panel was giving crap to Hussain for his stupid commentry. I liked Stuart Macgill's oppinion that the English 'foucus more on winning the battles than they do on winning the war'.

[Big Merv]

I dont know why but I have never liked Nasser Hussain. I'm very surprised at how well Darren Lehmann commentates though.

[Kirsty Harris]

Originally Posted by Big Merv

I dont know why but I have never liked Nasser Hussain. I'm very surprised at how well Darren Lehmann commentates though.

I thought it was quite funny when Lehmann observed that every time he came into the commentary box Australia lost wickets!!

Of course the Sky commentators are going to be a bit biased, they are English by and large, so it's to be expected. Perhaps on occassion Hussain does over step the line, but i think it's probably due to him being recently retired, and still very compative after years of losing to Australia!!

I think Nass is a great man!!! But I can also understand how he might grate for some people!

[Victor Frankenstein]

do you get the british sky commentary then? is there not an australian sky?

never actually heard nasser commentate for a long time but i can understand him being very pro england, have to say though that in britain there are three main places to listen/watch cricket, sky, channel4 (terrestrial) and radio4 (test match special), of these, sky is over the top patriotism, radio4 is over the top negative and pro whoever is playing england and channel 4 tends to have a good balance of praise and criticism.

You should tune into test match special, bbc.co.uk/radio4 you want the long wave version, it's sometimes on bbc.co.uk/fivelive but it's the same people. They're very pro-touring team and anti-england, it's all mainly ex-england players that were failures who are bitter about it still so they use any excuse to have a go at the england team. When they're not making sly comments though, they're actually interesting to listen to and funny in an old english private schoolboy type way

[Notts Exile]

Watching Channel9 coverage is the same for the English. Your Aussie commentators are just as biased.

On what Stuart MacGill said, you have to win a few battles to win a war. And we've started nicely, thankyou.

[Paoli]

Originally Posted by Victor Frankenstein

do you get the british sky commentary then? is there not an australian sky?

never actually heard nasser commentate for a long time but i can understand him being very pro england, have to say though that in britain there are three main places to listen/watch cricket, sky, channel4 (terrestrial) and radio4 (test match special), of these, sky is over the top patriotism, radio4 is over the top negative and pro whoever is playing england and channel 4 tends to have a good balance of praise and criticism.

Mate, I reckon the last time Australia ever produced any footage of anything overseas was probably the Vietnam War. Of course we get British Sky, the Australian Sky is only a news channel. I wouldn't mind Sky Australia though; I find Sky UK's coverage of anything abouts 1 zillion times better than Foxtel's, who also never produce anything.

For the record, Hussain has to be the most boring commentator. Forever speaking in military terms, he annoys the hell out of me. Lehmann actually isn't too bad and I think he may have found himself a new career. Gower is one that I rate highly as well, maybe it's just his composed voice behind the mic. As for Holding; he's immortal!

[greg]

Your only moaning because you lost.If you had won you wouldn't even notice what the commentators were saying.

[Teatime FatCat]

I reckon hearing Nass cheering each Aussie wicket must be as grating to an Australian as it is grating for us English to listen to certain Aussies talking bollocks before the Ashes. Thommo, Chappel, McGrath, all giving it the 'English net bowlers, England aren't good enough, it'll be 5-0, England might draw one if they're lucky' etc etc etc - and repeated yawningly often.

Three cheers for a balanced viewpoint, as given by Lehman, Ponting, Strauss, Fraser etc.

We've been the butt of Aussie cricket humour for far too many years. I'll be the first to admit that McGrath and Gillespie are truly brilliant bowlers and probably decent blokes too - however, I still take great pleasure in watching Dizzie with his head bowed after a dreadful over, or watching open mouthed as KP puts him into the stands (again) - just as every red blooded Aussie would cheer if Freddy was being biffed around the park.

As for McGill, what small-minded tosh! After being beaten so often over the years, England are going to rejoice over each victory, and hope it builds to a series win. What would McGill have us do - quietly thank the Aussies for allowing us to beat them?

Sing it from the rooftops, enjoy every win and treat the Aussies as a challenge to be respected - but give them some serious **** when they **** up!

[Lemming]

I don't care if the English commentators are cheering on England. They are English after all! I've never heard a rule saying that commentators can't support one of the teams. I don't watch sky so I don't know what was said or whether it was malicious or not. I'd prefer to listen to English supporters rather than Mark Nicholas, on channel 4, who is just going to praise every Australian player constantly, all summer.

[Rachael]

I'm not sure who you reckon is out of order on the TMS team VF.. I'd suggest it's one of the few remaining bastions of decency. You'll not get CMJ slipping into "our" instead of "England's" or "their" instead of "the Australian"... which is something that should not be beyond the basic good manners of ANY commentator.. but I would think he'd have grounds for libel if you accused him of bias with respect to the different teams.

The only guys who struggle to meet the standards CMJ sets are Blowers (when he gets excited, which given that it takes no more than a passing bus or pigion is rather too often) and Aggers (ditto, but it takes something pretty special to throw him): both seem suitably apologetic after any outburst and I can't see them causing offense.

The one thing you CAN perhaps expect from TMS is rather more insightful critique of some of the home players.. simply on the grounds that most of the comentary team have spent far longer watching and discussing players who feature regularly on the domestic scene.. but when you get to a former player like Mike Atherton you're perhaps looking at a player who knows the overseas stars better than home grown new-comers.

I've heard Shane Warne a few times of late: that's been interesting. I was pleasantly surprised to hear him fit straight into the largely dispassonate analysis one would expect from the BBC. He obviously had to be careful about what he said about current Test team-mates.. but was as frank as I thought he could be and seemed to be at least striving to be objective.

Alas.. I only listen to the pearls of wisdom dispensed by the channel 4 commentary team very occasionally as the effort of switching the sound off and back on again (or ideally the channel / TV off and on again) at each advert usually convinces me it's better to just have TMS on whilst I watch. That said.. nothing I've heard on Channel 4 has irritated as much as the few glipses I've had of Sky commentary :-)