‘Bobby’ Talyarkhan: The Pioneer Of Indian Cricket Commentary

In the ‘Signpost’ section of the magazine India Today, dated 15 August 1990, an announcement was made:

Died: Ardheshir Furdonji Sohrabji Talyarkhan, 93. A prolific and trenchant columnist even at his age, ‘Bobby’ Talyarkhan was a legendary figure in sports journalism. He was the first man to bring sports to the doorsteps of millions through his lively commentary on AIR.

To the few who remembered, it was indeed the end of an era. AFS ‘Bobby’ Talyarkhan (1897 – 1990) was Indian cricket’s first radio commentator.

Radio commentary had begun in the early Twenties, surprisingly not in England, the Home of Cricket, but in Australia. This took place in 1922 in a Testimonial match for Charles Bannerman (Test cricket’s first centurion) at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The first commentator was a gentleman named Lionel Watt. Five years later, the BBC introduced sports commentary in 1927 when the commentary of an England versus Wales rugby match was broadcast. The same year, the first cricket commentary was broadcast on BBC in the Essex versus New Zealand match at Leyton.

Talyarkhan’s tryst with the microphone began in 1934, when he commentated for the first time in the Quadrangular, in a match where the Parsis played the Muslims at the Esplanade Maidan. The Quadrangular, in its earlier version as the Triangular–and, in its later version as the Pentangular–was India’s premier cricketing tournament for close to four decades. It had its origins as the Triangular in 1907 with the Hindus, Europeans, and Parsis playing each other (before that, the Europeans and the Parsis played each other regularly).

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