Better sports commentary please

THE EDITOR: May I ask Andre Errol Baptiste, the radio commentator who covered the Commonwealth Games in Australia for his radio station, why he thinks he needs to scream into the microphone while doing his “commentary” on sports and speaking in a way that makes it impossible to understand what he is saying?

It leaves one to wonder what language he is speaking, since it certainly does not sound like English. It seems to be a style for local commentators today to carry on in this inane way while doing their commentaries, perhaps because they think it sounds cute.

Football, athletics and horse-racing are among the fast-paced sports and commentators have to be skilled in order to do commentaries on these and at paces that the listeners could understand.

In the case of the Commonwealth Games’ commentaries, I found it more useful to listen to the Australian commentators from whom I was able to make sense of their descriptions, while lamenting what to make of what Baptiste was trying to convey.

I wish Baptiste and some of those who did sports commentaries on radio today could relive the glory days of radio sports commentators like the late Raffie Knowles who excelled at football and horse-racing; the late Clive Pantin whose exciting deliveries kept the cricket lovers on edge, especially during a nail-biting finish to a game; and Ken Gordon and the late Mervyn Telfer, whose every word one understood while they did their football commentaries on Radio Trinidad. Please Andre, do yourself and your listeners a favour: cut the false excitement and the unnecessary screaming out if you want to stand out as being a good commentator of “live,” fast-paced sports. It will be a better way for us to remember you.

CLYDE ALPHONSO, Diego Martin