The fun of watching a cricket match increases manifold if you also get to hear some good commentary which includes details of the strategy being implemented by the teams, fun banter between the commentators, talks about old matches and so on.
The former Australian cricketer Mark Waugh who was a part of the English commentary panel in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been replaced by former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson for the third and fourth matches. If you feel that it has anything to do with Mark Waugh’s heated banter with Dinesh Karthik, you are wrong because the BCCI signed him for only first two test matches and he himself was a replacement of Michael Clarke who was ousted from the panel after a video clip went viral in which he was seen having a scuffle with his girlfriend in public area.
Mark Waugh and Dinesh Karthik had disagreements on various occasions but things seemed to turn worse when they were having different opinions in regard to the field placement made by Australian skipper Pat Cummins for veteran Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara. When Dinesh Karthik was asking questions to Mark Waugh, there was a moment when Mark Waugh said that he didn’t know this was a press conference and he said to DK that he was going place a limit on his questions, one question in one session. The banter got over after the third commentator Sanjay Manjrekar intervened by reading the score.
Mark Waugh also had quite a few banters with former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri as the latter reminded the former of his 4-0 whitewash prediction when India suffered a humiliating defeat against Australia in the first test match at Adelaide. In response, Mark Waugh said that he was not the only one to say that.
Recently during a chat at a Radio channel, Mark Waugh opened up on his banters with DK and called it fun, adding that he can assure it was good fun. He goes on to say that DK is a young player and young cricketers’ way of seeing the game is different from how he and players of his generation see the game. Mark Waugh further says that people should have different opinions because it will be quite boring if everyone thinks in the same manner.
Mark Waugh also states that to be very honest, he disagrees with DK on many of his opinions and he feels that Mitchell Johnson has replaced him in order to give some balance to the commentary box during the BGT 2023.
The former Aussie cricketer Matthew Hayden is also in India as he is a part of the commentary panel and it is fun to listen to these experienced cricketers. What do you say?