If David Lloyd (see Heroes: David Lloyd) is probably the most universally loved member of the Sky Sports cricket team then Charles Colville must be the most disliked.
We sometimes ponder that Sky deliberately keeps Colville in employment so they can justify their otherwise mostly exclusive policy of recruiting ex-England captains to its commentary team.
Colville is everything you don't want a cricket commentator to be. He is smug, irritating, ignorant, tells appalling jokes and if he was any more reactionary he could serve in Robert Mugabe's government. His style would be more suited to trash television like Britain's Got Talent, and funnily enough if you think of a dumbed down version of Piers Morgan then voila you have Colville.
Some detractors of Colville (are there any supporters?) would say that at least he is part of Sky's second string and is limited to highlights, international matches not involving England and domestic cricket. But for those of us that work, that highlights package is normally the only chance we get to see England in test action during the week.
There are still groans every time in the Reverse Sweep house whenever Colville's ugly mug appears on the screen. Indeed we sometimes wonder if Bob Willis' acid tongue and extreme vehemence at times is as a result of having to spend an inordinately long period of time next to the grinning jackass Colville.
There are many bad cricket commentators worldwide - Bill Lawry, Danny Morrison and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan immediately spring to mind, but Colville has to be the worst of them. As the man himself would say "Got him!", you are truly a Reverse Sweep zero Charles.
its true colville's bad, as are laxman sriramakrishnan, ranjit fernando, ather ali khan, tony cozier, mike haysman, bob willis, robin jackman, arun lal, maninder singh and mark nicholas but bill lawry seriously, common man.
Posted by: Faran | Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 14:31
Not a fan of Lawry myself - he is far too biased towards the Australian team and is always going on about 'the crowd lovin' it' Simply dreadful.
Posted by: The Reverse Sweep | Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 16:07
lol, looks like yr personal view rather than a majority one, he always seems unbiased to me but probably that's just me.
Posted by: Faran | Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 19:46
I guess it's difficult not to bring in personal likes and dislikes but for me Colville isn't at the top of the worst presenters/commentators list. By a large distance that goes to Mark Nicholas who needs to be presenting a posh version of X factor rather than sucking up to better cricketers than him. Although no-one can get close to Nicholas (thanks goodness he spends a lot of time in Australia!), Bob Willis is the epitomy of what is not needed for his role isn't he...he can be good if you need to get to sleep though....
Posted by: Ed Lamb | Monday, September 13, 2010 at 07:16
Ed, I quite like Nicholas although he can be a bit sugary sweet at times - he is a better presenter than commentator IMO. I really like Willis - extremely sardonic and says what he thinks. Personally, I think he is wasted on the highlights programme. I'm sure that Charles is an amiable fella but he does grate on me
Posted by: The Reverse Sweep | Monday, September 13, 2010 at 20:30
You wouldn't want to share a pint with Bob Willis; he is a miserable sod, but as a broadcaster I think he's fantastic. Most of what he says seems about right, and the fact that he cannot hide his contempt is an asset in my book.
Colville is a dick.
Posted by: MartDawg | Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 22:57
Charles Colville introduced highlights of the 6th ODI against Australia on sky last Wednesday as having "a nail-biting-final-over finish but who came out on top"? We all knew at the end of England's innings thank's to his "The 6th ODI has had it all,667 runs..." When England were all out for 333 it didn't take much working out who won before Australia had even batted. My nails remained untouched! Let's see if sky lets him introduce the 7th ODI
Posted by: Sid King | Saturday, February 05, 2011 at 19:08
Ha ha Sid. I missed that one. Classic Colville.
Posted by: The Reverse Sweep | Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 15:52
Yep, ColVILE is truly awful. Mark Nicholas used to be my worst commentator, but he's made to sound like Richie Benaud next to this man. God forbid he covers a county game featuring Surrey - you can almost hear him pleasuring himself in the commentary box.
There seems to be a lot of dislike for Bob Willis, but I'm a fan of his regardless. Any man who gets shunted to highlights and stuck in a studio with ColVILE for a couple of hours deserves praise, not scorn. You'd all be grumpy if that happened to you.
Posted by: Ianashworth | Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 16:00
Arrgghh, just clicked on the link again and saw his stupid face. Get off my monitor!
Posted by: Ianashworth | Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 16:05
Colville is both ignorant and arrogant. He clearly winds up his fellow commentators, those who have actually played first class cricket and understand the game, Why on earth does Sky persist with this ignoramus? He needs to be binned as soon as possible.
Posted by: Rod | Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 20:39
i personally think colville is good
Posted by: Brendan | Tuesday, February 07, 2012 at 16:04
RSPCCC You have failed the test - stop picking on Charlie #topman
Posted by: spiritofswanton | Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 19:19
His surname is COLVILL - no letter 'e'
Posted by: Disgrunted Coville | Friday, August 03, 2012 at 14:09
I arrived at this page because I googled "Why don't they fire Charles Colville?" Thank God, I'm not alone in my allergic reaction to the over assertive, smart aleck pub bore! What audience research are they relying on to keep him in a job? If they can get shot of Andy Grey on the football side, surely they can bin Colville for ruining everybody's cricket...players, commentators, viewers alike?
Posted by: ejh | Thursday, August 08, 2013 at 20:07
I've been browsing online more than three hours today, yet I
never found any fascinating article like yours. It's lovely price sufficient for me.
Personally, if all website owners and bloggers made just right content material as you did,
the web will probably be much more useful than ever before.
Posted by: programming bft remote | Sunday, September 01, 2013 at 06:55