It's not that Irani is merely inarticulate. That would be survivable. Inarticulacy does not quite do it. What's required is one of those tremendous compound words that the Germans specialise in: a word that means 'someone whose shallow vocabulary perfectly expresses his simpleton's worldview'. Truly, the inner life of Ronnie Irani is a terrifying, if tiny, place.
But here is the real terror: Irani is not just a part-time pundit for Setanta's once-a-year T20 bonanza. He has a lucrative media career as a radio presenter at Talksport, where he appears daily as a foil to a rent-a-gob ex-footballer called Alan Brazil [The awfulness of Brazil's radio show can only be comprehended by looking at this picture and imagining that you are trapped next to him in a pub for three hours. Every day.]
12th Man pointed me towards Gideon Haigh's Cricinfo piece on the nature and repercussions of the IPL TV coverage. I'd extend the point. If the language used to describe the game is limited to trite conventional wisdom, then that will become the prevailing culture. Just look at football.
Not only is he monosyllabic, he's just a negative cunt. Especially about Warne. Sorry if someone wants to play cricket in a different way Ronnie. He does my head in, and when he isn't there they get Hick in, who actually puts the other host asleep.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot win.
I shout at ColVILE, I scream at Alan Green and get rid of enormous amounts of rage, but I switch Ronnie off. Sorry to lower the tone of your esteemed organ, OB (though I note Jrod has beaten me to it..) but Ronnie really does talk out of his arse
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/ronnies-arse
We've had the dubious pleasure of Alan Brazil sometimes appearing on Melbourne radio.
ReplyDeleteVery much your sports radio fathead.
Part of football punditry's problem is the cult of the ex-pro. There is actually no correlation between being a good player and a good pundit (or indeed a good manager). Almost any old newspaper hack is a better pundit than say, Alan Shearer.
ReplyDeleteCricket is quite lucky with its articulate, analytical ex-pros, but Irani is the equivalent of Ian Wright.
Alan Brazil's on in Australia? My god, why?
ReplyDeletehave you ever thought that deep deep down in all of us there is an inner Ronnie?? I really think that there is a little Ronnie in all of us
ReplyDelete