Generally, no.

The best rugby commentator I ever heard was the Scot Bill McLaren, who never played test foootball, He was on the verge of selection when he suffered TB.

John Arlott, the greatest cricket commentator only played one first class game.

Richie Benaud is an exception, a talented player and a witty overseer of the great game.

Mark Nicholas played for Hampshire but never for England.

Then we have Bill Lawry (even more boring as a commentator than he was as a player) and a whole string of idiots who spend most of their time telling us how great the Australian team is even if they lose.

Tony Greig is interesting, he is quite different and objective when away from commentating Australian games.

In NZ Ian Smith is a constant moaner, Danny Morrison does a good job and should be seen more and Jeremy Coney is a hoot.

Don't get me started on the Australian rugby commentastors. Kearnsey is a joke, even barracks for the Aussies in the middle of a game and spends a lot of time assisting the referee, particularly when his beloved Wallabies are under pressure.

No-one has ever told him that there are other people than Australians in his audience. When he comes on, so does my mute button.

Grant Fox and Rod Kafer are two deep thinkers on the game and provide some excellent analysis.

But generally, no, explayers, particularly those who have just completed their careers, don't make good, objective commentators. They are far too close to the players on the field and far too thick to distance themselves from them.

Mark Skaife and Neil Crompton do a good job at commentating v8 supercars.
They need to make pretty technical analysis sometimes which is easy for them.
Also they can explain things about certain tracks and so on that only someone who has raced them could.