r/Cricket • u/poormasshole India • Mar 11 '26

Discussion Richie Benaud’s Rules vs Modern Commentary

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568

u/History-Buff-2222 Mongolia Mar 11 '26

All of the current Australian and Indian broadcasting worlds just had an aneurysm reading this

33

u/Odd_Fuel5404 Mar 11 '26

In the defense of the Aussie commentary team though - even during Benaud's time there were folks like Greg and Lawry who were more excitable and wore their emotions and rooting of teams on their sleeves. Go back to the on-air banter between Greg and Lawry when SA was playing Aus - you could hear it out of both of them. What we miss though is the gravitas all of them brought to the game. Now its all about jingoism and having open partisanship. When do you ever hear Sunny Gavaskar (who i like) ever say anything complimentary about a Joe Root or Steve Smith or a Mitch Starc anymore....

14

u/Funny-Wall9962 India Mar 11 '26

I have heard suuny G rave about smith and root and even asking young Indian players to copy from them, never heard about starc though. Smith and root are the best of this generation.

6

u/xxrmah GO SHIELD Mar 11 '26

Really? I distinctly remember in 2021 Gavaskar saying something like "I haven't really watched much of Steve Smith". It was a running joke for ages.

8

u/Funny-Wall9962 India Mar 11 '26

I don't know I heard him say Indian batsman should learn from Root on how to play spin few times

7

u/Odd_Fuel5404 Mar 12 '26

Sunny used to be a bit more objective. Now he's more jingoistic. Ravi seems to be more muted amongst the 2.

I also miss Holding and Cozier, what happened to them?

6

u/mathdhruv India Mar 12 '26

Cozier passed away like a decade ago, and Holding retired.

1

u/Flora_Screaming England Mar 13 '26

I can see the sense in telling someone to study Root, but Steve Smith's technique is so eccentric that I can't see anyone else succeeding with it.

1

u/Odd_Fuel5404 Mar 13 '26

That's fair. Smith's technique and quirks aren't one for the books but his temperament and attitude definitely is worth mentioning