CRICKET BROADCASTS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 501, 28 January 1949, Page 5

CRICKET BROADCASTS

,_ Sir,-I listened to the broadcast report of the Canterbury and Wellington Plunket Shield match recently and was rather shocked to hear the way one of the announcers made his remarks about some of the batting. Here are some of the remarks-‘"So-and-so has just ‘slammed’ a ball to the boundary," "So-and-so ‘carved’ at that ball, but missed," "So-and-so has gone ‘doggo’", "So-and-so tapped that ball just past square leg and they have gone through for an easy ‘stroller’," "So-and-so smacked that ball to the boundary, will it be a boundary? Will it what? . These are only a few of the remarks that I can state from memory, Well, I thought, it may be all right for the football fans, but it just did not "go down" with a cricket enthusiast. Another thing,

I do not know if the announcer concerned knows all the players, Wellington and Canterbury alike, personally, but he seemed as if they were all personal friends, as he would say "there is Tom so-and-so, or Wally so-and-so, or Peter so-and-so, or Eric so-and-so, or Brun so-and-so." Let’s try and keep cricket what it has always been, the king of outdoor sport, and not make it a cheap-jack show. WRONG °’UN (Wellington). (One of the announcers when asked to comment on this letter denied the use of the words "Doggo" and "Stroller." He asked if the correspondent had also written to the BBC complaining of John Arlott’s use of the words "Slammed" and ‘Carved,’ or his references to Ernie Toshack, Ray Lindwall; Don Bradman, Denis Compton, Norman Yardley, Bill Edrich, etc.--Ed.)