Commentators/Pundits

[Brighton M]

Just thinking about this.

Been watching/listening to the Ashes?

Bumble, Boycott, Botham, Atherton, Holding, Nicholas, Hughes, Agnew, Tufnell, CMJ and more...all brilliant!

In the football world we get the likes of Lineker, Gray, Lawrenson, Pleat, Townsend, Green, Motson etc

In short then...why are football pundits and commentators so shit?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Education

 

[Boroseagull]

Education

One word sums it all up!

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I think also with cricket pundits, there is more of a focus on what they bring to the occasion, and how eloquent/entertaining they are. They have a fair few who were relatively moderate cricketers involved. Mark Nicholas was hardly an international star, nor was Aggers, but both can string a sentence together without inserting the words "you know" between every other word.

All Sky care about with their football pundits is how famous they were as players, or how photogenic they are. Jamie Redknapp, John Barnes, even Gary Lineker to an extent are pretty crappy presenters or analysts, yet all have had large contracts in the past.

 

[jordanseagull]

Jesus, opinions change so much. Botham is so f***ing serious, and boring.
Atherton - boring, along with pretty much ALL of the 'Sky Sports' team, bar Bumble and Gower.

The radio commentary is so much better, i end up listening to it rather than watching it, much better.

 

[Gwylan]

One big difference is that cricket commentators/pundits are prepared to tell it how it is: if someone's playing rubbish or if a team has got something wrong, they'll say so. Football pundits act like it's an old boys' club - hardly ever lay into someone and tend to hype up matches more than they're worth, finding something positive to say about the most humdrum games.

Cricket commentators seem to be more rounded individuals too - in the past test series I've heard commentators quote Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth and probably a few more; I've heard them refer to events in the wider world; to other sports and to other cultural events (and not just Aggers fawning over Lily Allen). It sharpens up their cricket commentary - as CLR James said, "What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?" Try as I might, I can't see Ian Wright or Alan Shearer bringing Milton or Pope into their summaries - they'd probably think they were centre backs in the Championship.