Respect listeners of radio overall - not just cricket coverage

Respect listeners of radio overall – not just cricket coverage

Oct 13, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

“Live cricket commentary in shambles – a lost art,” by one, Munesh Dutt aroused my interest. It is timely and I want to add to his concern. He is piqued regarding “… cricket commentary in the Caribbean, and more so, in Guyana (that) the ‘authorities that be’ seem bent on finding ‘pals’ and ‘past players’ to do the job, when real, live cricket commentary demands some exceptional skills.” I agree with him that “… there is no Naim Chan and this boggles the mind (as) Naim Chan is Guyana’s premiere radio cricket commentator, and he may even be so at the regional level.” He buttresses this by referencing “His years of experience, pleasant radio voice, simplicity and correctness of language use and descriptive ability of live play … (all combining) to make him a natural choice whenever the job has to be done.” So now for my contribution.

Editor, Avinash Ramzan seems to have emerged as the greatest ‘PR maan’ in local journalism. I followed a few years ago, his ‘promotion’ of Inderjeet Persaud. His description of the man has left language bereft of anything for the likes of the late Tony Cozier, John Arlott and Richie Benaud etc. His excessive flattery resembles the deifying of a mortal, whose responses in the very piece contradict the ‘glory’ that was being showered on him. Listening to it was a vomiting experience.

Then what about John Ramsingh, whose Facebook piece is no different? What is troubling is that he alludes to being a colleague of Tony Cozier. This shocked me. I can recall ‘no Ramsingh’ working alongside Tony Cozier. I hope that Ramsingh will authenticate, giving dates and occasions when his ‘colleaguing’ was taking place.

Then National Communications Network INC. must work on ‘reading’ for those in the News Department. Since the topic is sports, I will stick here and register my utter disgust at what passes for Sports News. Not only is the writing ‘non-newsie’; it is excessively long, as they are ‘copied and pasted’ then read. Radio writing is a skill quite different from that which obtains for the print media.

Then, as I listen, I get lost in the web of non-essentials. It gets worse, as the reader, namely Travis Seymour, all most all the time, reads at an unacceptable level. His innumerable ‘starts and stops’ add to his difficulty in name pronunciation, especially when it comes to pronouncing the names of people, in the international pieces, where the principals and places are French, Italian, or Greek etc. in origin. This in particular needs addressing ASAP. It has been formalised now.

My final comment is about the ‘would have’ phenomenon, commented on by Dutt. He noted that this gross error is being “… popularised by most, if not all of our announcers and parliamentarians, (and it) has made an indelible mark on local users of the English language. I hope that Dutt’s explanation will be embraced and that the ‘forces that be’ will ‘undo’ this horrible ongoing ‘language mal-practice.’

In fact, even as I am currently listening to the Essequibo versus the President 11 Inter-County game, Inderjeet and his comments man, a former local fast bowler, are in ‘over drive’ with ‘would have,’ ‘towards rhyming with cowards,’ and ‘immediate’ as ‘immidate.’

May Minister Kwame McCoy’s and his (supposed to be) four experts in the basic use of language…” address these issues (and others) so that there will be “… quality and professionalism (not being far) far removed from international standards and expectations.

Yours truly,

Prescott Mann.

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