Voice of Cricket

Nervousness, mastering cultural nuances and reading social media feedback: what IPL commentators go through. Swaroop Swaminathan tries to find out from the commentators during his visit of the studio recently

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“Nervous,” was how Pragyan Ojha put it. Manvinder Bisla had used that same word. The likes of Sarandeep Singh and Sourabh Kumar weren’t too sure if they belonged when they were given gigs. These days, they are all key voices in the host broadcaster’s attempt to make the Indian Premier League (IPL) more inclusive by adding commentary feeds in multiple regional languages including Bhojpuri, Kannada and Punjabi.

These commentators — known as ‘talent’ — have either played for the national team in a previous cricket innings or are well known as coaches. But while it gets them through the door, they are also subject to tests before JioStar, who have shelled out a pretty penny to broadcast the IPL, give them gigs.

Siddharth Sharma, the content lead (sports), narrates a story. “We just don’t want to gloss over a glorious shot (although) that’s one of doing it (commentary),” he tells this daily. But if we can engage at a deeper level and make this hero meaningful for you… take the example of (Vaibhav) Suryavanshi. One of his coaches is part of my Bhojpuri commentary. He comes from Samastipur. So, all of this, We have got stories that we should fulfil the fans regardless of where he joins us from. That’s something we have worked on, to create that ecosystem and environment that tells the richest story. Some of them are consummate storytellers, some of them we work with.”