Best/Worst Sports Commentators/Summarisers

[3offTheTee]

Worst-Think Paul Merson struggles to get his words out; Phil Thompson is bias; Atherton is bland and tedious like his batting.
Best Cammy is great along with Bumble although I am sure there are many I have missed

 

[Tongo]

Cant stand Bumble. Always enjoyed Mark Nicholas in the cricket.

Basically commentary and punditry for me has dropped into a morass of cliche and soundbites. The quality and craft of people like Richie Benaud and Peter Alliss, when he was in his prime, has gone and been replaced by stats jockeys and pundits wheeled in to provoke some controversy.

 

[fundy]

Were not gonna agree on much if you rate Bumble and dont rate Athers, one of them knows whats going on the other is Bumble

Best: Nasser, Ian Bishop, Neville, Romo, Michael Jordan, Dougherty

Worst: McManaman, Smith, Mardle, Knight, Rainford-Brent, Alex Scott, Monty, McGinley

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Best - Trescothick , Aggers and the whole of the TMS team , M Johnson , Dougherty, Neville ( when not doing Utd ), Brown

Worst - Roe and most of the Sky golf team , Tyler , Jenas , Carragher , Knight , McMananaman , Smith

 

[robinthehood]

I find most of the ex footballer co commentators all pretty bad.
Not exactly a pundit but Kelly daglish is one of the best

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Best:
Laker, Arlott, Pickering, Carpenter, Coleman, Motson, Brian Moore (football), Maskell, Atherton, Bumble, Holding, Neville, Murray, Radar, Dougherty, Boxall

Worse
Botham, Alliss, any BT football commentator and analyser, Roe,

 

[Bigfoot]

Best - Trescothick , Aggers and the whole of the TMS team , M Johnson , Dougherty, Neville ( when not doing Utd ), Brown

Worst - Roe and most of the Sky golf team , Tyler , Jenas , Carragher , Knight , McMananaman , Smith

Thanks for the compliment !!

 

[Pin-seeker]

Best:
G Neville,Alex Scott,Nick Dougherty,Le Tissier,Roy Keane

Worst:
Phil Thompson,Mark Roe,Charlie Nicholas,Jamie Carragher,Michael Owen,Chris Sutton,Owen Hargreaves,Rio Ferdinand.

 

[Deleted member 18588]

Best or Worst?

To me it makes no difference as I find them all equally annoying.

All the decent ones have retired and been replaced by those who seem to think that they and their comments are at least as important as the action they are supposed to be covering.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Best or Worst?

To me it makes no difference as I find them all equally annoying.

All the decent ones have retired and been replaced by those who seem to think that they and their comments are at least as important as the action they are supposed to be covering.

I totally agree which is why so many of the ones I picked are from an age ago. The likes of Arlott, Laker, Pickering and Maskell all let the pictures tell the story. Too many these days think they need to describe everything. Less is often more and a lot of the modern commentators need to go back and look at how the very best in their field did it

 

[Pin-seeker]

Jamie Redknapp,how did I forget that oxygen thief🤷‍♂️

 

[upsidedown]

Best , Bill McLaren

 

[Captainron]

Cotter is superb too

 

[Deleted member 18645]

Best Sky presenter - me - I was bloody awesome on the NFL coverage ;-)

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Worst...............Innverdale is fast approaching Alliss levels of incompetence.

 

[Reemul]

Jonathan Pearce is the worst

 

[Deleted member 18121]

Worst - mcmanaman, Owen, Tyler and Neville (when doing man utd games), shearer

Best - carra and Neville on mnf

 

[davemc1]

Bob Menery is the best 🤣

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I'm a bit old school on this but to a large extent I blame the director, producer etc who set out out what they want. Blank air is no longer allowed, the pictures have to be described (we have eyes), the commentator now has to have an opinion. More programs mean the talent is spread thinner.

The great commentators are no longer with us, Benaud, Brian Johnston, Bill McLaren, Brian Moore, Peter Jones, Jim Laker. Some are still alive but retired or rarely heard, Iain Robertson, Barry Davies.

Jonathan Agnew is quality, Vaughan and Tufnell are painful. Sky cricket is largely good imo. Rugby generally has it right with the exception of Matt Dawson. Dallaglio and O'Connell were top class in play yesterday, O'Driscoll, Wilkinson and Woodward back in the studio high class as well. I enjoy the BBC rugby team as well.

Golf and football is a messier area. I prefer the sky b team to the A team for the golf. For football oh for the days of Sajnt and Greavsie, Martin o Neil or Clough as a pundit. Brilliant. K like Martin Tyler as a commentator and that's about it on TV. Souness is good but the rest are iffy. The BBC team are largely painful to me.

Michael Johnson is superb, absolute stand out.

Ongoing issue for me, the token female pundits show horned into a panel for PC purposes. When Alistair Cook, Boycott etc are describing what it's like to face a West Indian pace attack on a dodgy pitch with the ball flying at 90mph past your ears, cutting to the token lady who occasionally gets one at 60mph criticising the openers is a bit hollow. I'm losing the battle but it doesn't stop me from being irritated.

 

[MegaSteve]

See some can't keep a cap on the poison bottle...

Not that I watch cricket but I could be tempted more if Michael Holdings melodious tones were more in evidence...

Still feel Dame Laura should get more airtime...