StriKe Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Quote THIS YEAR’S Indian Premier League (IPL) telecast will not have the familiar voice of commentator Harsha Bhogle. The 54-year-old, whose association with Indian cricket goes back to the mid-80s and who has been describing IPL action since the 2008 opening season, was informed about the termination of his IPL contract just a week back. The decision has come as a surprise for the voice of Indian cricket since he had conducted the Season 9 draft auction, featured in the league’s promotional videos, was in the commentators’ 51-day-long duty roster, and even had his flight booked by the production house. Though, Sony Network holds IPL’s telecast rights, it is the BCCI that controls the tournament’s production. BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur and IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla refused to comment on Bhogle’s sudden ouster. However, a senior BCCI official, on condition of anonymity, told The Sunday Express: “When deciding the commentators, we take feedback from everyone. We monitor social media reactions on commentators, and also take inputs from players.” Other board members talked about an incident which occurred during India’s opening WorldT20 game at Nagpur last month, where Bhogle is reported to have had a heated exchange with a Vidharbha Cricket Association official. They felt this could be the reason for his last-minute ouster. Bhogle told The Sunday Express that he wasn’t aware about the reasons. “No one told me anything. I have not been formally told of the reason even now. All I have been told is ‘it is a BCCI management decision’,” said Bhogle, a respected voice in world cricket with 3.66 million Twitter followers. Of late, specifically during the WorldT20, Indian commentators have been part of several conversations on social media. In the aftermath of India’s last-ball “escape to victory” against Bangladesh in the crucial league game, actor Amitabh Bachchan, who was seen at the venue, had posted a tweet, asking commentators to focus more on Indian cricketers. “With all due respect, it would be really worthy of an Indian commentator to speak more about our players than others all the time,” he had tweeted. When his followers speculated about who he was referring to, Bachchan did not name the commentator. When pressed, Bachchan tweeted that he wasn’t referring to Sunil Gavaskar or Sanjay Manjrekar. “The assumption among some people was that he (Bachchan) was referring to me and while I don’t know if that is true, it did strike me that there seems to be a slight misconception about the role of a commentator in a telecast. I will try and clarify here,” Bhogle had reacted in a Facebook post. “Star Sports 1 is the world feed. That is the telecast and commentary that goes to everyone around the world. That includes passionate fans in Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, England, the USA, everywhere. That broadcast must necessarily be an objective, balanced portrayal of events. Making that excessively India-centric means being unfair to other teams playing and to viewers from their countries who have the right to be as passionately involved as Indian supporters. And so, talking more about India, in a game like yesterday’s, would be letting down viewers in, say, Bangladesh,” he said. Besides, the social media comments, commentators have spoken, in whispered tones, about Indian players expressing their displeasure to them when criticised. Bhogle said he didn’t wish to speak on these issues, but he did talk about the Nagpur game where the Hindi and English commentary box was separated by the president’s enclosure. With the door of the VIP box shut, the bilingual commentators had to rush down several flights of stairs, and climb up again, after every stint. “Working on a tight deadline, because of running around, I was at times panting as I went on air. This was because of that shut door,” said Bhogle. Board officials said Bhogle had an angry exchange with a cricket official at the venue as he wanted him to open the door, and this reached the Nagpur-based BCCI president Shashank Manohar. Those in the know said this incident was the trigger that resulted in Bhogle losing out. “Even if it was the Nagpur incident, no one heard my part of the story,” said Bhogle - See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/harsha-bhogle-off-air-for-ipl-2016-says-no-one-told-me-anything/#sthash.oqaxiS1c.dpuf tweaker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beetle Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Please add Sidhu to this list...he called Anuraj Thakur Gora chittaa chiknaya. Homophobic Sreeni would have banned him by now and spared us of the crap he talks.. sscomp32 and tweaker 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CG Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Thank God the laughing joker is out. CommonMan, nevada and Switchblade 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nova Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Not a big fan of Bhogle's commentary but he got treated unfairly here. A commentator is supposed to be unbiased as much as possible. Amitabh Bachchan is ignorant on such matters but he had to score a few points on social media. Shashank Manohar is a dictator tweaker, keith, CommonMan and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulbul Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Not a big fan of Bhogle's commentary but he got treated unfairly here. A commentator is supposed to be unbiased as much as possible. Amitabh Bachchan is ignorant on such matters but he had to score a few points on social media. Shashank Manohar is a dictator:hitler: He is not banned because AB,looks like he had some issues with some BCCI admin..,read last couple of para. tweaker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nova Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 13 minutes ago, bulbul said: He is not banned because AB,looks like he had some issues with some BCCI admin..,read last couple of para. I know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asterix Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Good riddance of the motormouth... Even if it's unfair to him... diehardpacer, Switchblade, randomGuy and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shivaji bhonsle Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Thank god for this news. Had enough of his"silly jokes" on which no one laughs. diehardpacer, CG, tweaker and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fineleg Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Cant stand HB diehardpacer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philcric Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 There are many things good about IPL but hosting and commentary are not among them. IMO, Harsha Bhogle's decline as a presenter/commentator began with the IPL (and his hair transplant). Whether it's midlife crisis or the effect of young,vibrant and glitzy IPL, Harsha descended from an intellectual to a caricature. Always sucking up to the cricketer-commentators, talking too much, toothy grin, making un-intelligent jokes etc. He was in a unique position of being the bridge between millions of faceless cricket fans and the cricketing elite, but he made a mess of it. keith, express bowling, CG and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
express bowling Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 i really disliked Bhogle's commentary in the last 4 or 5 years. He interrupted cricketers when they tried to talk about any technical issues, cracked humourless " jokes " , talked about insignificant issues that interests very very few cricket watchers and fans, gave the impression that he was undermining Indian players and overhyping foreign players without any basis to do so, was generally a boring commentator etc. etc. his removal from the commentary box is a good idea BUT ..... a tiff with a Board official should not be the reason for his removal especially when his side of the story was not listened to. beetle, Mosher, keith and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G_B_ Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 He may have been axed due to issues with Viderbha cricket. (which is wrong) But his commentary was really deteriorating. Like it or not, most commentators have a shelf life. If I was Harsha i would go back and look at where he can improve. This means not going at tangents all the time, and reducing the superlatives and adjectives he uses in his sentences. More than anything, provide insights on the actual game. philcric, express bowling and diehardpacer 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Merlyn Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Ban Manju as well.Please. Old guy, diehardpacer, Rasgulla and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ankit_sharma03 Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 If public feedback was criteria, then axing Manju Laxman sivarama krishnan Sidhu Kapil dev was suppouse to happen before bhogle , he wasnt gud in last few yr but still not as bad as these guys Rasgulla, philcric, express bowling and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randomGuy Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Good. Now please never come back n stick to cuckoldry only. diehardpacer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WC2011INDIA Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Paripaktata is not getting terminated? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CG Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 If public feedback was criteria, then axing Manju Laxman sivarama krishnan Sidhu Kapil dev was suppouse to happen before bhogle , he wasnt gud in last few yr but still not as bad as these guys Atleast those guys do not laugh like joker for 24hrs diehardpacer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jf1gp_1 Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Why does he have a bcci contract and not with star ? keith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vvvslaxman Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 what a great news lol Can they do the same for international matches as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vvvslaxman Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 If i have to say in Harsha's words "On another day it could have been Manju" diehardpacer, adi B and Ankit_sharma03 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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