Athar Ali the lousy commentator...

tiger_man · #1 July 13, 2005, 02:54 AM

this guy's commentry is simply awful...

i was watching the highlights of the game bd vs aus the one in which they won and his commentry is simply annoying...

when aftab hit the six of gillespies ball cause the score to tie....he commented "take that australia"

as a commentator he should be neutral and not express his joy so profoundly, definitely not by attacking the opposing team..
lets face it, he is there as an international commentator, not some khoda box....

whats annoying and more funny is his pronounciation of cricketers name...he calls ricky ponting ..."pointing"....simply annoying in a live telecast in national tv....

capslock · #2 July 13, 2005, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tiger_man
this guy's commentry is simply awful...

i was watching the highlights of the game bd vs aus the one in which they won and his commentry is simply annoying...

when aftab hit the six of gillespies ball cause the score to tie....he commented "take that australia"

as a commentator he should be neutral and not express his joy so profoundly, definitely not by attacking the opposing team..
lets face it, he is there as an international commentator, not some khoda box....

whats annoying and more funny is his pronounciation of cricketers name...he calls ricky ponting ..."pointing"....simply annoying in a live telecast in national tv....

I agree, during the Zimbabwe tour he also got Stuart Matsikanery confused with Dinesh Kaneria of Pakistan, and ended up calling him 'Stuart Matsikaneria'!

Sadly, he is also the best English speaking cricket commentator we have.

TheWatcher · #3 July 13, 2005, 03:03 AM

As long his employers are cool with it, who cares. Also, someone needs to bash other teams behalf of us, especially when most of the other commentators bashing our team ruthlessly. Ramij Raza also makes lots of biased comments, never heard much complain against him

tiger_man · #4 July 13, 2005, 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by TheWatcher
As long his employers are cool with it, who cares. Also, someone needs to bash other teams behalf of us, especially when most of the other commentators bashing our team ruthlessly. Ramij Raza also makes lots of biased comments, never heard much complain against him

commentators during their telecast always keeps/or atleast try to keep their opinions to themselves and apply an objective tone...atahar ali cant seem to do that....

other times you can say whatever you want, you have the freedom as an individual....

Edited on, July 13, 2005, 8:28 AM GMT, by tiger_man.

Mahir · #5 July 13, 2005, 03:41 AM

Yes Athar Ali is quite biased at times, which is clearly evident...so nothing to hide there. But dont forget that as a Bangladeshi, he has achieved more than anyone else from this country as a commentator internationally. Maybe Shamim Ashraf Chowdhury would have been there already had it not been for political barriers of BD.

Agree with The Watcher, as long as he doesnt start getting heavily criticized for his commentary, I say he's carrying on a fairly well-done job.

Mahir · #6 July 13, 2005, 03:44 AM

Forgot to mention one more thing : the way Athar has been defending Bangladesh from the harshness and extremeties of other commentators deserves more praise than any criticism you may direct towards him for his biased commentary.

James90 · #7 July 13, 2005, 04:31 AM

The reason people like him commentate on the big stage is because countries hire them because they come from the same nation as a team playing because he can give insight on the team/players/situation back in their homeland so I can tolerate a bit of bias, it's not that bad.

The problem with Athar is that he says the most stupid things and they're so often. I can't remember most of them but one in Zimbabwe he said was "If you're not going to hit it for four then you shouldn't hit it at all".

He also has to do some research into the people playing, he never once mentioned an opposite players habits and got their names wrong quite a few times. Andy Simmons was the most annoying

Edited on, July 16, 2005, 4:27 AM GMT, by James90.

Ejaj · #8 July 13, 2005, 04:45 AM

haha.. comon .. give him a break. He may not be doing Great .. but.. atleast he is trying to become good with this. He is quite novice just like our National team.

Fortuner · #9 July 13, 2005, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MasterBlaster
Forgot to mention one more thing : the way Athar has been defending Bangladesh from the harshness and extremeties of other commentators deserves more praise than any criticism you may direct towards him for his biased commentary.

Hey Dude...u r right...

Athar Ali Khan deserves more praise than criticism.

Even a normal Bangladeshi who has been living abroad cant or wont be able to bear that much harshness or criticisms which i think Athar Ali has been bearing....whn we are not being able to perform nicely...

Me as Bangladeshi cant bear much whn pp from other countires especially the Indians & Pakis say so much bad about out cricket and there are many more Bangladeshi who also cnat bear this but we should thank Athar that he is all cool in regard to this.

We cant say him a lousy commentator as he is the only one who came forward for the commentary thing. He is more of a selector than a comentator.

Sometimes, i wonder why the hell r'nt there ny1 else other than Athar in commentating, may be its bcoz every1 afraid that they wont be able to bear the criticims/harshness/etc by other country commentators or ppls....

So, i would make it clear that we just cant say nything bad even if he happens to have some negative thinkings while commentating....i agree his English mite be of poor quality but u gotta admit his Eng is ahead comp to the Bangladeshi standard of English....

Ahmed_B · #10 July 13, 2005, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by capslock
I agree, during the Zimbabwe tour he also got Stuart Matsikanery confused with Dinesh Kaneria(!) of Pakistan, and ended up calling him 'Stuart Matsikaneria'!

lol....
and now you yourself got Danish Kaneria of Pakistan confused with Dinesh Karthik of India.....

Chill out buddy... these things happen to all of us!

naheyan · #11 July 13, 2005, 05:34 AM

LOLZZZZZZZZ
...but Cmon ppl he is the only commentator we have...its really discouraging wen u criticize him like that...

GuruTM · #12 July 13, 2005, 05:45 AM

Athar Ali Khan

As far i understand Athar Ali Khan is a good positive commentator. tiger_man please think a little bit more when you run a commentary against Athar Ali Khan.

Athar Ali Khan

GuruTM · #13 July 13, 2005, 05:47 AM

I think tiger_man should have used some other words rather than "lousy".

Locutus · #14 July 13, 2005, 06:03 AM

This guy is new. Let him be who he is. He will get better. We should be cheering him because not many from Bangladesh get a job to commentate on international game on TV.

Spitfire_x86 · #15 July 13, 2005, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tiger_man
commentators during their telecast always keeps/or atleast try to keep their opinions to themselves and apply an objective tone...atahar ali cant seem to do that....

other times you can say whatever you want, you have the freedom as an individual....

Did you ever listen to BTV/Radio commentators? When a BD wicket falls, their voice becomes expressionless and toned down. But if BD takes a wicket, then they shout as loud as they can! :P

I agree that Atahar is not a good commentator, but he's at least better than "box of god" & co.

I think Atahar has been imroving slowly since the beginning of his commentator career. Or maybe I'm getting used to ignore his faults....

Edited on, July 13, 2005, 11:35 AM GMT, by Spitfire_x86.

James90 · #16 July 13, 2005, 07:27 AM

Why are you standing up for him through critisism. If he doesn't want it then maybe he should actually do some work and learn the basics of the game and some information on some of the players. It's a shame that he's like only person in Bangladesh with a recognisable name, good reputation and decent english. To be brutally honest I would make a better commentator than him and I'm not kidding.

Sorry · #17 July 13, 2005, 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tiger_man
this guy's commentry is simply awful...

i was watching the highlights of the game bd vs aus the one in which they won and his commentry is simply annoying...

when aftab hit the six of gillespies ball cause the score to tie....he commented "take that australia"

as a commentator he should be neutral and not express his joy so profoundly, definitely not by attacking the opposing team..
lets face it, he is there as an international commentator, not some khoda box....

whats annoying and more funny is his pronounciation of cricketers name...he calls ricky ponting ..."pointing"....simply annoying in a live telecast in national tv....

i understand athar ali has limitation with his english but as a non native english speaker his english is not that bad. even the english commentators make mistake when they pronounce asian or african names.
on the other hand, athar is the only credible ex cricketer who has good knowledge to be a commentator at this level.
i do not agree with the rest u said about him. a commentator is a person with feelings and emotions just like us and a descent audience appreciate when they see that in positve manner such as 'take that australia',certainly darren lehman did.
i do not understand what is your problem with that. athar ali was not sitting in antarctica(as u were) and getting frozen to death, he was watching his country playing hot blooded and had every right to show his emotions.
and by the way, we do not like see some one in the commentry box as 'mr. right and cool' , we want to see someone who has balls to say things and shows feelings and emotions as we do.
if you do not appreciate that, the others will do.

**Mahmood** · #18 July 13, 2005, 08:30 AM

Other than his indian accent, I dont find anything else wrong. He is doing what he can and so far, he is the best we got. If he is too supportive, that seems ok with his employers, so why should we bother?

akabir77 · #19 July 13, 2005, 08:57 AM

I can't understand why people have to pronounce stuff like english people do? Is there any rules on that. Have you heard people from alabama????

Have u listen to managker/gavasker/raza/ any sub cont. Commentry before?

People r looking for bad stuff from anyone they want...

The guy who thinks he is better then ataher pls apply for a job and save us from him(yes i agree he is not the best choice but i don't think he is the worst...)

Rubayed · #20 July 13, 2005, 10:21 AM

Man! with all due respect to Tiger_man i find this thread silly. As Mahmood pointed out,he is simply the best we've got, i absolutely dont c any problem with his commentry. So what if he had said, " Take that Australia", i think he was basically trying to give a voice to that superb shot that Aftab played rather than expressing his own opinion and even if it was his opinion what is wrong with it considering all the bashing that he had to take from his other fellow commentators at sky. I've heard other English or Australian commentators taking side, so whats wrong with Athar's comment?
Why r we so desperate to be like others? Why r we criticizing him for his pronunciation or his accent? What is the need for him to sound like English or an Australians, let him speak the way he normally does, rather than making a fool of himself while trying to sound like others. Beside i agree he is not a great commentators but i feel he is certainly improving and is the best in Bangladesh, so support him instead of criticizing. he will only get better.

Edited on, July 13, 2005, 3:22 PM GMT, by Rubayed.
Reason: typo

chyicarus · #21 July 13, 2005, 10:58 AM

its only commentary guys, Darren Lehmann was with him in the booth at that time and he also knew how much emotions was through his colleague's head. the term "Take That Australia" wasn't meant to sound offensive and in cricket this is the norm.
Even on-field sledging are known to attack each other personally but at the end of the day they all go and have a beer. Its all about maturity and how you can control yourself from losing your head.
Cricket is not just about talent, skill, technique etc etc. There is some level of psyche involved as well, how strong you are mentally. And since we are a society who cannot take any sort of criticism its hard for us!
Yes, compared to other "potential" commentators, Athar is the best among them.
But as a person i don't like him becoz he's extremely arrogant and show-off.

akabir77 · #22 July 13, 2005, 11:10 AM

actually at that time he was not even comenting but lehman and the othe guy showed some respect and let him describe it and he said those famous word "take that Astralia" while standing in the back of the othe commentators while drinking water

mwrkhan · #23 July 13, 2005, 11:28 AM

Atahar is the best we have got (Though Shamim Ashraf's English is a lot better he isn't an ex-player). He will improve with time. I would like to see him become more level toned and analytical. As I mentioned in another thread he should aim to become a neutral commentator in matches not involving BD. Best way to improve skills.

Dawah · #24 July 13, 2005, 11:36 AM

Give Atahar Ali 5 years!

Beamer · #25 July 13, 2005, 11:41 AM

I have heard Athar scolding our players many times in the comm box when they do something silly, like throwing their wkts away. He is quite heavy handed actually at times. I have heard him criticising Bashar's defensive field tactics as well. Off course he is a bit biased when it comes to Bangladesh, but not worse than some English commentators who are fixated on anything England. Also, its silly to criticize him for his accent or pronounciation of alien names! come on ! Have you heard the struggles of Eng-Aus commentaors with some of our names? How many versions of Mashrafee have you heard? Don't blame them at all as they are not expected to pronounce it faultlessly as it is not native to them. Why the double standard? Actually, Athar is not bad at all when calling out names that are not Bangladeshi. How come no one is complaining about Michael Holding with his obvious Carribean accent?