ISL: In Tamil, what's bicycle kick and power play

Bernard Mendy saunters towards the post and heads one in to give a rousing start for Chennaiyin FC over Pune FC in their Indian Super League (ISL) encounter at the Nehru Stadium. The moment is neatly picked up at the studio where commentator Ranjith thunders in Tamil, "Mendy Arumayaga Heading Pannaarey" (Mendy headed it beautifully). Sports commentary in Tamil is back and how. If the ICC World Cup at the start of the year saw the resurgence of Tamil commentary, the ensuing events -- Indian Premier League-8 and ongoing ISL -- have seen the language’s on-air popularity soar. While former players Hemang Badani, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Sridharan Sriram and V B Chandrasekar brought cricket in Tamil on viewers’ television sets, the likes of Ranjith, Srinivasan, Nanee and Vijay Karthikeyan have done the same in football. Renowned commentator Nanee feels Tamil commentary at the ISL is no more just niche entertainment but commands a committed audience. "For any given game, there are two commentators. One acts as an expert airing his views on the game, while the second is the leader who provides inputs on other aspects of the encounter. We had sufficient training in the diction and delivery of the lines. We are getting positive feedback. We have ensured that the commentary is conversational, and not something the audiences will have trouble understanding," says Nanee, whose first stint in the language was at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa.For Badani, on air commentary is often just dressing room chatter – casual but providing valuable insights to viewers. "Doing commentary with my former teammates Sriram and Ramesh has made it memorable for me. Tamil commentary was the need of the hour since it provides the local audience an enhanced viewing experience," said Badani.The former player opined that his knowhow stems from not only viewing the game, but also from having played the game at the highest level for India. "If I see a boundary being hit of a good ball, I wouldn’t just say that. I will go ahead and explain how the batsmen read the bowler and adapted well to execute that particular shot. Now this comes from playing cricket for years and having been in similar situations myself," he noted.What we are seeing is a renaissance. In the pre-television era, All India Radio’s Tamil commentary for matches played at M A Chidambaram stadium brought that extra intimacy to cricket enthusiasts in the state. The AIR Chennai Tamil commentary team boasted of prominent names such as V Ramamurthy, Abdul Jabbar, P Sivaramakrishnan, C Rangachari and Ponmalai Ganesan among others. Till 2004, the AIR team covered every international cricket match played in Chennai. The team even gave prominence to domestic fixtures like Ranji Trophy and Buchi Babu games played in the city. Post 2004, Abdul Jabbar and another popular commentator and television anchor Dr Sumanth C Raman took on the mantle.The new millennium saw the visual medium’s prominence reach its pinnacle which meant words began to lose their voice. Fast-forward to the year 2015 and the situation has changed. Interestingly, it is the visual medium that has brought Tamil commentary back to the living room. Raman welcomes the move. "Conceptually, having a regional language commentary is a great move. The success and the sustainability of the entire initiative will depend on the quality of the commentary," Raman added.The entire exercise has got the audience interested; the challenge is in sustaining it.