K.K.Saxena- Making cricket alive with his eloquent commentary
While watching a match at stadium or at ground, one often feels that something is missing and cricket is not complete. The players are there, the match officials are there, scenic ground and surroundings are there, thousands of other spectators are there. But that one missing element is a crispy commentary, without which cricket looks soporific. There are many commentators who have created their unique style at domestic at international level. But there is one man who is been doing commentary for past 21 years in local and domestic cricket in India.
K.K.Saxena-a civil engineer by profession hardly has to do anything with construction and buildings now. Instead with is magnificent commentary, he constructs an exact match scenario in front of listener’s who is hearing him from any other location. Mr. Saxena started commentary at few of the local tournaments when he was in his early 20s. “I used to play cricket before I actually started commentating. In fact for few years I was doing commentary and playing cricket simultaneously. Later I stopped playing cricket and focused on commentary. Alina Muslim tournament and All India university tournaments were the ones where I did commentary for the first time,” said Mr. Saxena.
“Back in those days I did commentary for Lala Harilal tournament which used to take place in Delhi. It was a day night tournament, the experience was wonderful for me. One has to ensure that people will be involved in a game and they won’t get bored. I did it for 5 years. That tournament used to go on for a month. Mr. Anil Chaudhary who is now a BCCI umpire called me there when he was a conveyer of BCCI back then. That tournament used to take place at Delhi’s Nehru stadium. The overall experience of commentating over there was brilliant for me as I learnt lots of things about commentary”
Two years ago Mr. Saxena was a commentator at BPS T20 school world cup. “I was called at Ranchi for commentary. Th
ere were few other commentators along with me like Mr. Deepak Sharma and Mr. Srivastava who does commentary at Doordarshan. Over the years I have seen many players while commentating. Ashish Nehra often used to play matches at our university ground in Aligarh. Also Piyush Chawla, Narendra Hirwani, Manoj Prabhakar, Chetan Chauhan, Chetan Sharma are the players whom I have watched when they were playing in various matches.” said Mr. Saxena in his blissful voice.
Mr. Saxena learnt everything about commentary from his idol Mr. Sunil Doshi. Sunil Doshi is a well-known commentator from Indore, Madhya Pradesh. “I used to listen to his commentary a lot. Indeed he is my idol when it comes to commentary. He is so famous for commentary that as an honor the commentary box at Holkar stadium was named after him few years ago. I am lucky to learn the tricks and trades of commentary from him. The basics of commentary in cricket are very simple. One should know about all the fielding positions and various strokes that batsman plays. Also one should understand the game thoroughly. If a captain makes any changes in field then it’s a job of commentator to make the audience understand the possible strategy behind it. I think commentator shouldn’t talk too much about things not relevant to cricket. Instead it should be a germane commentary with a good rhythm,” said Mr. Saxena.
In international cricket Suresh Raina is his favorite player while in domestic and local cricket he likes to watch Mr. Neelu who is an all-rounder in Delhi’s local cricket and boy called Rinku who is playing for Uttar Pradesh under 18’s. Mr. Saxena is looking forward to excel further as a commentator and cover an international match in near future. The fans of his commentary are waiting to hear his prominent voice at the highest level.
K.K.Saxena’s commentary in Cricket Video