Cricket Commentary on the Radio

Before the television era, ball-by-ball radio commentaries of cricket matches broadcast by radio stations were the only way cricket followers outside the ground could get live updates from the field.  Radio commentary continues to be popular ever since the first radio broadcast  (click here) was made.  It was known as 'synthetic broadcast'.  You will be amazed at the method adapted at that time! Today, people can watch live coverage in pictures on their mobile phones!

Suresh Saraiya (click here)

I was inspired to write this blog when I heard that Suresh Saraiya was doing his 100th Test Match as radio commentator (for All India Radio).  It was the Nagpur Test between India and New Zealand (Nov.2010) and a delayed start to the match enabled the commentators to share their views on this great man on this landmark occasion.  It was a very interesting discussion.

Suresh Saraiya is a popular radio commentator whose voice is all too familiar to cricket-lovers all over the country since 41 years.  For players to play 100 Tests in recent times is an easier milestone than doing commentary for 100 Tests.  It may take about 10-14 years for players but it took this commentator 40 years to reach the century, which  is something remarkable.  Suresh Saraiya commands great respect.  His colleagues in the commentary box were admiring that he does not do the commentary for money.  Such is his love for cricket. 

I first heard him during the Bangalore Test Match in 1974 (click here).  We were all equipped with transistor radios at the stadium to listen to commentary to know identities of players.  We did not want to get answers like 'the one in white pants' going by an old joke when Sir Jack Hobbs was touring Australia and an ignorant spectator got that answer when he asked "Who is Jack Hobbs?".  Hobbs was the best batsman in that time (1920s).

Saraiya was among Tony Cozier (the veteran from West Indies), Anant Setalvad and R.S.Krishnaswamy for that match.  His flowing style, almost like singing, (in the 'Saraiya raaga'!) is unique and is renown for his 'back again' thing, what with his great knack of keeping those 'dead moments'  of cricket esp. between two deliveries of an over alive.  He fills this time sharing some interesting facts and figures and then when the bowler begins his run, he would return to the live action with his typically tuned 'back again'.  

In the early 70s I developed a great fancy for listening to radio commentary.  My grandfather used to listen to the commentary with much attention esp. when his nephew was playing for India (B.S.Chandrasekhar), but I could not understand much cricket at that young age, in the 1960s, leave alone the names of the commentators.  Scores mattered much to me then.

In 1973 I was at my friend Shankar's house in the next street one evening.  With much glee, he told me that he had discovered where BBC was broadcasting its live commentary on the Test Match between England and West Indies. I was so thrilled to hear it so clearly on his small valve-radio on the shortwave band.  I virtually ran home to search for that station (he told me where the 31 metre band was) in our Bush 8-band radio. I located that radio station, as reception was very clear at that time.  Goosebumps of joy!  I marked that spot on the dial and thereafter I became a regular follower whenever Test Matches were held in England. 

My Bush Radio (EBS 51, Made in England) that has given me and family many hours of listening joy.  It has been part of the family since 1958.  Still in working condition, but rarely switched on.

Similarly, prompted by my cricket friends, I found that Radio Australia also broadcast commentaries on the 13 metre band.  Not all radios were equipped with this frequency range.  Both Bush and our  National Panasonic transistor had this. I followed matches live from Radio Australia too when any team toured there.  The commentary team provided such fantastic stuff and also the English language itself that I did not want to miss description of a single minute.  I used to carry the transistor even to the toilet and bathroom!  The commentary was on even while studying for exams.  I had made a wire antenna so that the best reception was possible to receive the commentary loud and clear!  Shortwave reception need a good antenna to receive signals.

Slowly I became familiar with the voices and names behind them and I went to Cloud 9 many times on hearing voices of famous old cricketers!  What knowledge and experience they used to share!  

From the BBC, there were Brian Johnston, John Arlott, Henry Blofeld, Chris Martin-Jenkins (CMJ), Trevor Bailey, Fred Trueman, et al.  For Radio Australia there were stalwarts like Alan McGilvray, Lindsay Hassett, Keith Stackpole, Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry, et al.  It was cricket-education to all those who listened to them!  I must tell that I learnt much just by listening.  I was so much addicted that I have made recordings in bits and pieces of those famous voices.  I'm looking at ways to digitize some of those tapes now as e-technology is galloping!

Tape collection - 6 tapes on the top right are clips from radio commentaries by many famous voices at BBC and Radio Australia.

Alan McGilvray (click here)

- knwon as the 'Voice of Australia'!

Richie Benaud

1981 picture. HM The Queen Elizabeth II, Peter Baxter, Henry Blofeld and CMJ.

I've also recorded a few vintage clips from BBC's "Test Match Special".  Peter Baxter used to present this series on vintage memorable matches when the present match adjourned for luncheon.  A clip describing the live moment when Sir Len Hutton overtook Sir Don Bradman's 334, another clip capturing the moment of Bradman scoring a century, Jim Laker taking 19 wickets in that Leeds Test and a few such ones.

During Alan McGilvray's last Test Match (Eng-Aust, 1985) at the Oval in England as commentator, he was recollecting how the commentary was reproduced when there was a confusion during the famous 1960 Tied Test match at Brisbane.  They did not know it was a tie.  Then later, he said, the last ball of that match was redone in a funny way with the correct scores.  West Indies' Joe Solomon had thrown down the stumps to run out the Australian batsman with the scores level!  I have that clip!  I vaguely remember he also described something about that 'synthetic broadcast'.

Alan McGilvray in his last match at the Oval, 1985..... Fred Trueman with pipe (as always)

The BBC commentary box was more lively esp. when Brian Johnston was on the mike. His sense of humour kept both the listeners and those in the box happy and laughing, while he related old stories from his vast experience. He always had something funny to share during the between-ball time in his ball-by-ball description!  Such was the atmosphere when Johnners was there!

Trevor Bailey and Brian Johnston (Johnners)


So much of fun happened in the box and I quote one from my collection. Denis Compton, a fine commentator after his glorious playing era, often got tongue-tied over cricketers’ names. The man who suffered most at his hands [or tongue] was Alan Connolly, the Australian quickie. Compton always announced him as ‘Anal Colony’, despite repeated corrections! In the 70s, I have heard the BBC commentators struggling to get right the name of Srinivas Venkataraghavan and they never got it right but stopped at 'Venkat'!

Famous Indian voices in the old times were Berry Sarbhadhikary, AFS Talyarkhan, Pearson Surita, Vijay Merchant, Vizzy, VM Chakrapani, Dicky Rutnagar, Raj Singh Dungarpur, Ananda Rao, et al.  I'm told that Talyarkhan used to do the entire match solo!!  Found this 2003 article from The Hindu.  Worth reading. Click here.  Talyarkhan also used to present a weekly 15-minute programme on cricket on AIR Vividhbharthi, something like the famous Binaca Geetmala.

A.F.S (Bobby) Talyarkhan

Those were days when Hindi commentary was restricted to Hockey matches.  Slowly they were introduced to cricket also.  Ravi Chaturvedi became popular.  He paired with ....'back again', Suresh Saraiya when they toured to describe the Indian Tests abroad, Ravi in Hindi and Suresh in English. 

Fascination for the Radio

The sound from the radio has always fascinated me. My earliest memories recall a Made-in-England 8-band Bush radio, a gift from a family friend, from the famed Paints dealer on Ashoka Road, Salar Masood & Sons. Almost fifty years later it remains a working model. It has undergone minor repairs and sat in my father's friend Adam Khan's Silicon Electronics for two years unattended. Vacuum tubes have been replaced but I have seen to it that it still functions. Sound from it is so different and deep. Connected to it was a 10-feet long copper-wire mesh antenna near the ceiling that also helped support cobwebs! There was a special wall shelf out of reach of children on which this was placed in the living room and was operated only by the elders.

The radio was on every morning and evening, without fail. All India Radio, Bangalore was the most tuned in station even though Mysore was where the first radio broadcast was made in India in 1936. The first broadcast was unofficially made in 1927 itself. Besides, “Vividh Bharthi” was tuned on Shortwave for its transmission of Hindi film songs. Its “Binaca Geet mala” every Wednesday was a great hit, due to its presentation by Amin Sayani whose voice still echoes! Hotels became famous not because of its preparations, but people flocked due to the presence of a radio there. Not every home had a radio in the 1950s or 60s. Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Broadcasting Corporation also was famous for its broadcast of hindi songs at convenient times. Here is a picture of the hotel, Meenakshi Bhavan, which was famous for Binaca Geet Mala!! Meenakshi Bhavan as it is today, in Krishnamurthypurm.
I must add here that my father who did his Diploma in Sound Engineering in one of the earliest batches at the Technical Institute in Bangalore in 1949, worked at the Radio Station for a short period after his passing the diploma. He later worked as a sound recordist with distinction in the film industry in Bombay between 1951 and 1957 under a few reputed companies before he had to return to Mysore. While there, he has recorded many songs of films and one particular film he used to mention was "Phakheezah" in particular and he used to narrate how Lata Mangeshkar rehearsed before a recording. See picture of my father at a radio studio in the early 50s.


Programmes of AIR Bangalore that were much sought after were “pakshinota” (bird’s eye view of the programmes for the week every Sunday morning), Pradesha Samachara (Area news), Kannada news and Chitrageete (film songs). But the one that attracted most was the Sunday afternoon show of “sound track” of Kannada films: members of family would sit close to the radio (with volume blaring!) to listen. None would dare talk in the middle!

What Live telecasts of cricket matches of today were Ball-by-ball commentaries of Cricket Test Matches of bygone days. When any team toured India, radios did extra hours. Also for Davis Cup Tennis and Ranji Trophy cricket matches. Radio was a great source for entertainment and information to everyone at home, besides the newspaper, “Taayinaadu”. The Hindu was also widely circulated, but we subscribed that kannada paper.

People would curiously inquire, as part of conversation, which radio their home had, if they had one at all. The next question was which brand and how many bands it had! More the bands, more the envy! Radio owners were looked at with awe, much like those who owned wrist watches or even cars or scooters. Those were such days.

The late 1960s saw the advent of the transistor radio. It had the greatest advantage of portability and it required no cumbersome external antenna. That was much to our amazement. It had become a great fashion, at least to some, to show off their ownership of transistors. They would keep them in shoulder bags, play with a loud volume as they went walking or on their bicycles. The main idea was to get noticed, not to listen to programmes! To accompany the Bush, our first transistor was a National Panasonic 3-band. After our 4-day taxi-tour in 1969, we saw the car driver Ganesh using one to pass off time at leisure and he was ready to sell that imported set from Japan after our return! He sold us for Rs.800/-, a substantial sum of those days. It served us for a long time and gave us great joy until I gifted it off to a friend who is using now.

The 1970s saw me explore the depths of Shortwave bands esp. on the Bush radio. One Shankar came with the information in 1973 that his father had tuned in to the BBC on the 31-metre band and was listening to live cricket commentary of the Test Match between West Indies and England. That opened the door to a world of its own – the hobby of “Shortwave listening and DX-ing”. More on it later.

I came home, located the 31-metre band on the Bush, patiently turned the analog needle as slowly as I could, because I found so many different stations crammed between one another so closely! I later came to know that just 5 kHz separated them. I finally ‘caught’ what I was looking for - cricket commentary from the BBC! It was an excitement I can never forget. Though commentaries were aired before but they were relays from AIR Bangalore on Medium Wave, which was 'nothing special'. It was a ‘turning point’, in every sense! That was also when I learnt what those numbers meant on that analog dial.

I did enjoy the commentary, learnt so much from it – language and also the game itself, by persistent listening. There were some very renown commentators behind the microphone like John Arlott, Alan McGilvray, Fred Trueman, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Lindsay Hassett, Bill Lawry and so on. Their voices are taped from the 2-in-1.

2-in-1, the radio cum tape-recorder was the next step that happened, thanks to one HM Srinivas, a late colleague and music lover. He helped me buy my first 2-in-1 with stereo speakers in 1986. Even till 1987, the telecommunications dept. was collecting a nominal fee (Rs.15/- per annum) for every radio set bought and we had to pay it at any Post Office (the govt. stopped it later).

Coming back to the hobby of listening to Shortwave bands, I learnt that they had hundreds of broadcasting stations at any given time. Signals came from all corners of the globe. I came to know how climate and the earth’s ionosphere and even sun spots aided or disrupted shortwave broadcast over esp. over long distances. In the late 70s, I had begun spending lots of time searching for something new. Mostly I used to hear languages I never heard and with some experience, I came to identify some of the foreign languages as well. Many foreign stations broadcast English programmes also at set times every day. It sounded interesting to hear them. By then, BBC and Radio Australia had become familiar for their cricket transmissions. I was now ready to explore other stations on the air. I was to know that this new hobby was known as “DX-ing” (meant searching for stations from unknown distances).

One fine night, closely sandwiched between two others, a station was heard, though not clearly. I was delighted when the announcement went as “Radio Korea”. Link to Radio Korea
They also announced the address for listeners to write back which I soon did mentioning some information about the time, frequency of broadcast and content. After some days, much to my glee, I got a reply from them, ‘verifying’ what I wrote. It was called as a “QSL” card. A couple of years later I could record my voice (comments on the station) and send the cassette to Radio Korea which they broadcast as part of a contest. It had won a prize. Listening to my own voice on the air was hair-raising at that time!

I had by then been appointed by them as one of five 'official monitors' in India. This signaled the beginning of a new era for me in this hobby, post 1980-81. We were sent coupons to cover postage that we incurred to send reports of their broadcasts and program contents on a regular basis. It was a great feeling!

After some years, I had collected some 200 cards from 55 different stations. I came to know later that it was a great fancy among listeners and that there were other giants who were experienced listeners that counted them in thousands! There was one TK Soundararajan in Thanjavur whom I met at his home once. We discussed Radio! I now came to know that there is even a QSL card museum


In 1986, I came across Mr.Vasudev Parikh in Bombay who was also an ‘official monitor’ for Radio Korea. I met in his home following exchange of letters, only to learn that he had been born in 1920; that he was one giant in the hobby with a listening experience dating to the 1930s! Radio clubs are still in existence in various parts of the country and this man was also a respected member of one or two, because he had the rare privilege of monitoring a few other radio stations like BBC, Voice of Germany, Voice of America, etc. I too got a chance to monitor the BBC for a short while that helped me realize my dream!

The dream was a ‘digital radio’. I had seen it with Mr.Parikh and upon his suggestion, I was able to buy one in Madras with the help of another radio-enthusiast, Harsha. It is a Sony 7600D. Tuning was easy now, no knob-turning – but all digital. I used to get program schedules from a few stations and I knew which frequency had to be fed directly into it.

Many friends are brought together by this wonderful hobby, Harsha is one. He is more of a HAM now. I have no idea of Mr.Parikh as we seem to have lost contact. When he was active, he seldom missed sending a greeting card on my birthday.

Radio stations used to send out to its listeners complimentary gifts like pennants, posters, stickers, cards key-chains, t-shirts, pens, and whatnot to sustain audience interest. We felt great displaying them. It was a great pleasure to take part in various contests esp. in Radio Korea, which awarded many little gift prizes for the winners. Probably judging my enthusiasm, they retained me as its monitor for 16 years on the trot. It had become common for my local friends to inquire me how I was doing with the hobby, esp. at Radio Korea. Such was the interest.

Mid 90s saw another phase when the Idiot Box began to dominate through Cable Network and the radio audience gradually made their shift. It happened in many countries and a drastic reduction in audience was noticed. Technology too was progressing with the advent of World Wide Web and many stations saw no point in their radio broadcasting. So some of the big ones stopped broadcasting and went on line with the Internet. The whole scenario changed. But a few stations have remained in the old ways.

A friend’s family was visiting us in the 1990s. The young boy asked in great awe what that gadget was – I had switched on my Bush Radio to show them the ‘antique’ was still working! We had to explain what a radio was!

Soon after we entered the 21st century, people thought that the radio would be pushed to unheeded corners. But no, FM Radio seems to have revived the radio though not in the same variety in shortwaves. In my opinion it is more of a nuisance because it is available on mobile phones and cars and everywhere in such an "impressive" manner that people have stopped "listening to the beautiful world of silence". Satellite radio is also available for those who have the real inclination for quality of sound and listening pleasure in their homes.

A person in Bangalore, Mr. Prakash has a hobby of ‘collecting’ radios. He has a fleet of 800 of them! See photo.

The greatest advantage with the radio compared to its fierce competitor, the Idiot Box, is that while it is on, people can do other things while just lending an ear and you can carry it around too, wherever you want. Thanks to Marconi. Radio is here to stay on. One day our Bush radio may become obsolete, but the Radio will never be.

Take a look at this guide.
This is a beginner's guide to SW listening.
And another.

Maddy''s Ramblings blog has this to say, picturesquely described. (Listen to AIR's signature tune in the little widget in the blog) It brings me old memories too.

(Radios pictured at the beginning:
Bush EBS 51, National Panasonic, Philips 2-in-1, Sony 7600D and Sangean.)