A Study in the commentating style of Danny Morrison
5Danny Morrison is one of our more successful exports. After briefly threatening to get a foothold in the NZ broadcasting scene 15 years ago to inflict his unique style on the cricket world in general, and Asia in particular.
His contempt for the idea of sticking to words in the dictionary is well documented, and the focus of most attention.
“He has moosed (moused?) that massive”
“He has phatted that downtown”
“Boompha.”
Then there is the imagery that just sounds wrong.
“Boom!! The man on the moon has a visitor, courtesy of Suresh Raina!”
“Guess what, this one’s got an air-hostess on it!” He even manages to make that one sound slightly inappropriate too.
But the underlying, consistent, trait in his utterances is the random nature in the construction of his sentences.
He gathers a series of comments, of varying relevance, and mixes the together. There is always heightened emphasis at some stage in his delivery, but that is also aloof from what he is actually saying.
Probably the most famous example of this was “Another Citi Moment of Success. Here. On a Wednesday.” No description of what has actually happened, and a gratuitous insertion of a sponsor, although he is not alone in that one. But at least he pointed out what day of the week it was, because that’s what really matters.
‘Old pistol! Paul Reiffel. There he is. All the way from Australia! Victoria! Played for the Vics. Melbourne man.’ Seven bullet point style sentences with an awful lot of repetition.
Jimmy Neesham takes a catch: “Neesham. Grabs It. What a Catch. And He’s Doing Movember”
Then there is the ability to completely forget what he was saying. From a couple of days ago. “Pakistan are 44 without loss. IN COMPARISON, .. as Nathan McCullum comes on with his off breaks…. Been around a while… Fine performer, in this format, for the Blackcaps… NEW ZEALAND, at the same juncture, were 34 for 3.”
Later in that match there was the need to call in the third umpire over a run out call. “Umpire Raza. Come upstairs with the little head wobble”.
Once again the unique talent to swap context mid-sentence. Starting as if addressing Raza, he then slips into the third person before finishing.
Thankfully he is over there, so the damage is contained, but listen out for more assaults on the English language during the forthcoming ODI series. You never know what you’re going to get.
It grins my gears when he says “He’s gone for the changeup – the slower ball”, which I know is technically correct, and is a legitimate Baseball term, but the addition of “The slower ball” clashes with the “Up” Which is more pedantry on my part than anything.
Didn’t mention the “Maximum” amounts of “Maximum” in an over?
As the old saying goes ‘ A picture is worth a thousand words ‘ ….that popeye pic of him pretty well sums the bloke up as a cricket commentator, unfortunately have to put up with the boring pedantic twat again in the 1st ODI tonight.
I was a tiny ‘turd’ former at Takapuna Grammar when Danny the Destroyer was the star turn of the First XI (with Murray Deaker as D.P. and coach of that side, funnily enough). Then about eleven years later (around 1994-95) I came across Danny at Sport North Harbour while I was there in a part-time role for North Harbour basketball. He’s always been a very ebullient guy, but also extremely affable. Just a genuine good guy with no fake airs or pretence. In fact he and Scott Dixon would be the two sincerest, genuinely nice sportspeople I’ve ever met.
Danny obviously carries that affable and easy-going style of his commentary. He is warts n’ all, definitely his own man. Not sure that translates to the kind of test match commentary that people would want or expect (quite plainly not in most cases). He could adapt though, if he went a bit easier on the hyperbole and injected more of an analytical style and didn’t go off on other points in mid-sentence quite so much. I mean, it would be pretty dumb of anyone to say the guy wouldn’t know enough about tactics and cricket in general not to be able to offer a valid opinion on the state of any cricket match.
His current style suits the IPL to a tee. If he adapted a bit he could easily be a more measured commentator on test cricket also in my opinion. But I guess the question is: Can he or would he?
Paulthespotter said :
Danny obviously carries that affable and easy-going style of his commentary. He is warts n’ all, definitely his own man. Not sure that translates to the kind of test match commentary that people would want or expect (quite plainly not in most cases). He could adapt though, if he went a bit easier on the hyperbole and injected more of an analytical style and didn’t go off on other points in mid-sentence quite so much. I mean, it would be pretty dumb of anyone to say the guy wouldn’t know enough about tactics and cricket in general not to be able to offer a valid opinion on the state of any cricket match.
signman said :
He can still be easy-going without going completely over the top, it’s like he tries too hard to be liked so overcompensates big time & ends up sounding like a pillock…. yeah, his analysing on the game is pretty good, but as you’re basically saying needs to tone it down a fair bit otherwise he’ll just keep grating on the listeners.
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