I have been handed the new ball and asked to bowl the opening spell in this book of Cricket Commentary and Commentators. It was always my ambition to play Test cricket for India, but I was allergic to grass. A pity because I would have been the silliest mid-on to have played Test cricket. My long leg would have been a sensation. There have never been swingers to match mine. I used to be such an agile fielder that a piece of music 'Third Man Theme' was composed as a tribute

On the serious side, as a commentator, I was always fascinated by how cricket commentary began. While the journey of cricket commentary is fairly well-recorded in Australia and England, the information on the subject in other eight Test playing countries is scanty. This book - Cricket Commentary & Commentators - is a humble attempt to weave together threads scattered in different areas and diverse directions. The scope of the book has been enlarged to include not just commentators but even anchors, presenters, scorers and statisticians while making it a compendium on commentary. With these opening remarks, I urge you, the reader, to move forward.