After ten years of listening to international cricket matches only with English commentary, my Pakistaniat (which includes the love for our national language) was awakened again with all the excitement of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Off I went, then, in search of some place where I could still find Urdu cricket commentary.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a single source on the Pakistani media where I can hear live Urdu commentary of any cricket match, the World Cup included. In India, on the other hand, I did find at least two sources of Hindi commentary; in fact, I followed the Pakistan vs. West Indies Quarter-Final on one of them.
I am sad – very sad – that Urdu cricket commentary has disappeared, at least from the television screens. I think this is a terrible loss. Here is why.
Urdu cricket commentary is like reading an Urdu newspaper: First, it has more masalla; call it sensationalism, but it can be fun. Second, there are some phrases and comments that are simply not translatable to English and add so much spice. And, third, the Urdu commentators (much like Urdu news anchors) don’t even try to hide their biases, which makes even the boring moments less boring!
For example, this is what I heard just this week in the Hindi commentary after the first 10 overs of West Indies innings:
“Pakistan nay West Indies paar Shikanja Kuss Diya…”
Now, tell me please, even if you can translate these words into English, could you ever translate the sense the listener gets from “shikanja kuss daina”?
Pakistan has produced some extraordinary Urdu cricket commentator – indeed, Paksitan has also produced some amazing English commentators from Omar Qureshi to Iftikhar Ahmed to Rameez Raja. (The picture at the top shows some of the great cricket journalists and commentators of the past, including Iftikhar Ahmed, Munir Hussain, Farooq Mazhar, Omer Kureshi and Khalid Hassan).
The top-line Urdu commentators have included Munir Hussain, Hasan Jalil, and late Tasleem Arif. Munir Hussain still lives in Karachi but we don’t see him quite even on TV talk shows on cricket; I wonder why? Hasan Jalil moved to USA and does often write for Pakistani newspapers.
Here are some of the memorable lines from these commentators that I still remember after all these years:
“Javed Miandad nay aik Chowway kay leeaye mara aur gaind hawa mein gai; taizi she boundary ki taraf jaa rahee hai…. aur yeh aik run!”
“Pakistani team fatah key qareeb laikin abhi aik khilari baaqi hai jo abhi tak jam kar khel raha hai”
“Inzimam ul Haque aaiy baray promising player hain, aur yeh bowler nay gaind karaee aur yeh out! Pehli gaind paar!”
“Saleem Malik nay aaj apni shandaar karkerdegi sey Pakistan ki yaqeeni Shikast ko fatah main tabdeel kar diya. Yehan Eden Gardens Calcutta kay ground main” (This was the famous innings by Salim Malik in the 1987 tour of India)
You may have your own memorable phrases and turn of phrases from these Urdu commentators. If so, do please share.
I do think following a Pakistan cricket match with Urdu commentary can add “char chaand” to the game itself. I wish someone could add these “four moons” to the forthcoming Semi-Final against India this Wednesday!
On a more serious note, I wish the media moguls would bring back Urdu cricket commentary because it would be good for cricket as well as for Urdu. Most Pakistanis do not understand English. And even for those who do, Urdu cricket commentary just might improve their Urdu and at least somewhat stall the decline of the national language which continues to suffer from national apathy.
The main reason behind no more urdu commentary is absence of international matches from Pakistan. PTV has the right to broadcast all cricket matches played in Pakistan and PTV is the only channel with urdu commentators. So we need international cricket back in Pakistan and then we will see urdu commentators in action again on PTV.
By the way you can still listen urdu commentary on radio at Hamara FM 106.
Favouring Urdu while writing in English. Hypocrisy.
Hindi is a dying language in India.
The new language is ‘Hinglish’.
If you listen to any channel in Hindi it is obvious that the person has little or no knowledge of the language and is more comfortable with English. Same goes for other languages like marathi, tamil, punjabi etc.
English is a threat to all vernacular languages and the way I see it there is nothing anybody can do to prevent them from dying. Because no language in the word is expanding at the rate that english is expanding.
Urdu is also soon going to be dead ( apart from poetry etc).
Sad.
indian media is running negative campaigns against pakistani team which is making the bad impression on cricket lover and pakistani team fans. they should have to stop these kind of things and face the reality and they should have to provide the solid reasons
http://www.voice.pk/sports-news/cricket/afridi-acc uses-indian-media-of-negative-campaign/
but i appericate that our captain Shahid Afridi faced and answered wisely on the said questions.
Last year I was happily surprised to see PTV actor Sajid Hassan doing Urdu commentary in QA Trophy finals on Geo. Readers may remember Sajid as the hero from PTV drama ‘sitara aur mehrunisa’.
In his younger days Sajid has played club cricket from Ibn-e-Insha club in Paposh, Karachi – which ofcourse doesn’t necessarily qualify him to be a commentator, but I was impressed with his knowledge of cricket and the way he commented on TV. I won’t mind listening to him as a regular Urdu commentator.