Laxman Sivaramakrishnan retires from BCCI commentary, says he was never given toss or presentation duties due to discrimination

[vvvslaxman]

2 minutes ago, gattaca said:

But he is right about doctored wickets 

There were doctored wickets in 1990s as well. Besides Ashwin's entire career was not on those ttracks. Most of the crap pitches are happening only in the last few years. And he doesn't talk about Jadeja. Just Ashwin lol So there is beef . India won 17 series in a row with fully fit Ashwin. Look at it now. On the smae tracks we get shellacking. INfact Ashwin batted well on the same tracks, Axar did as well.

[putrevus]

12 minutes ago, gattaca said:

Ravi’s shastri , gavaskar, murali karthik , siddhu and Akash chopra all are terrible. If they can get a gig so should LSRK

No one is complaining that he got the gig .The problem is his whining instead of going away with dignity he is creating a nuisance.

 

 

Edited March 23 by putrevus

[sage]

 

[BacktoCricaddict]

1 hour ago, sage said:

 

 

The thing is - LS wasn't even that good an international cricketer.

 

He was definitely a great young talent who bamboozled the opposition for a couple of test matches, followed by a successful 1985 WCC campaign. I reallly enjoyed watching him blaze a trail for a short time there, but he tapered off rapidly after that. Even his FC record is underwhelming. 

 

So, "great cricketer bad commentator" paradigm does not apply to him. No comments on his commentary from me - other than Bishop, Shastri, Gavaskar and Bhogle, I don't recognize any of the commentators enough to judge. 

 

[sage]

Exclusive | Why Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is pained: ‘Because of my dark skin, people dismissed me… I wanted to forget, forget, forget’

https://indianexpress.com/article/long-reads/why-l-sivaramakrishnan-is-pained-because-of-my-darkness-people-dismissed-me-i-wanted-to-forget-forget-forget-10599548/

[G_B_]

On 3/23/2026 at 9:28 PM, BacktoCricaddict said:

 

The thing is - LS wasn't even that good an international cricketer.

 

He was definitely a great young talent who bamboozled the opposition for a couple of test matches, followed by a successful 1985 WCC campaign. I reallly enjoyed watching him blaze a trail for a short time there, but he tapered off rapidly after that. Even his FC record is underwhelming. 

 

So, "great cricketer bad commentator" paradigm does not apply to him. No comments on his commentary from me - other than Bishop, Shastri, Gavaskar and Bhogle, I don't recognize any of the commentators enough to judge. 

 

 

Hirwani effect

[BacktoCricaddict]

1 hour ago, G_B_ said:

 

Hirwani effect

Chronologically, Siva was before Hirwani. So, NH was afflicted with the Siva effect :-)

[BacktoCricaddict]

3 hours ago, sage said:

Exclusive | Why Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is pained: ‘Because of my dark skin, people dismissed me… I wanted to forget, forget, forget’

https://indianexpress.com/article/long-reads/why-l-sivaramakrishnan-is-pained-because-of-my-darkness-people-dismissed-me-i-wanted-to-forget-forget-forget-10599548/

 

I have no doubt that he faced colour-discrimination his entire life, especially growing up. It often comes out in subtle ways - "Usska bachcha kitna pyaara hai gora gora ..." "Usski ladki ka smile pyaara hai, par thhodi dark hai ..." etc etc. And then in more obvious but seemingly harmless ways later in life - "abbey kallu idhar aa." I've heard all these subtle color-shaming comments. Even recently, from people half my age, while they discuss others' children. Disgusting.

 

But three things go against this particular argument of his:

 

- He was picked as a teenager before he had any singificant FC record. In those days, that was a very rare occurence. He was also given many chances after his consistent failures.  

- From all accounts here, he wasn't some brilliant commentator. He was in the same category as many others. But, guys like Gavaskar and Shastri were much more accomplished as players and would definitely have a leg up due to that - fair or not.

- As others have pointed out - Bishop, Mbangwa.

 

Bottom line: I feel really for his scars, but he may be letting them get in the way of better judgement.

 

Edited March 26 by BacktoCricaddict

[vvvslaxman]

39 minutes ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

 

I have no doubt that he faced colour-discrimination his entire life, especially growing up. It often comes out in subtle ways - "Usska bachcha kitna pyaara hai gora gora ..." "Usski ladki ka smile pyaara hai, par thhodi dark hai ..." etc etc. And then in more obvious but seemingly harmless ways later in life - "abbey kallu idhar aa." I've heard all these subtle color-shaming comments. Even recently, from people half my age, while they discuss others' children. Disgusting.

 

But three things go against this particular argument of his:

 

- He was picked as a teenager before he had any singificant FC record. In those days, that was a very rare occurence. He was also given many chances after his consistent failures.  

- From all accounts here, he wasn't some brilliant commentator. He was in the same category as many others. But, guys like Gavaskar and Shastri were much more accomplished as players and would definitely have a leg up due to that - fair or not.

- As others have pointed out - Bishop, Mbangwa.

 

Bottom line: I feel really for his scars, but he may be letting them get in the way of better judgement.

 

Jokes about color is an accepted one in movies. Only recently this is being called out. Fair and lovely was one of the biggest promoter of colorism. It is not unique to India. In China it is just as bad.

 

https://ameracesig.squarespace.com/blog/2018/3/9/colorism-in-china

[vvvslaxman]

On 3/23/2026 at 3:05 PM, sage said:

 

A guy with such mental fragility shouldn't be on Twitter. That can mess up your mind even worse.

[AKane]

On 3/23/2026 at 2:04 PM, vvvslaxman said:

Besides Ashwin's entire career was not on those ttracks. Most of the crap pitches are happening only in the last few years.

Er.....   Ashwin has 383 wickets in 65 tests with 21.57 average in India.

 

Ashwin has  150 wickets in 40 tests at 30.55 average outside India

 

Ashwin's average in SENA is as follows

 

Australia  42.42

England    32.92

NZ             33

SA             49.63

 

I mean it is okay you like the fella but just look at him outside India..........

 

[vvvslaxman]

51 minutes ago, AKane said:

Er.....   Ashwin has 383 wickets in 65 tests with 21.57 average in India.

 

Ashwin has  150 wickets in 40 tests at 30.55 average outside India

 

Ashwin's average in SENA is as follows

 

Australia  42.42

England    32.92

NZ             33

SA             49.63

 

I mean it is okay you like the fella but just look at him outside India..........

 

He missed 50% of the matches. Durban is the only place ball turns. They completely removed that from the fixture. 99% of the wickets  in the lsst SA tour fell to seamers from both teams. In SENA to negate spin threat a 5th day pitch in India will be 8th day pitch in SENA.  If we just blindly look at numbers most of the players will be crap in one way or other. In England he is better than jadeja. But they sat him out 6 matches in a row. Add that to bad fielding of his bowling it looks worse than it is. Only indians are crying about this. 

[diga]

9 hours ago, sage said:

Exclusive | Why Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is pained: ‘Because of my dark skin, people dismissed me… I wanted to forget, forget, forget’

https://indianexpress.com/article/long-reads/why-l-sivaramakrishnan-is-pained-because-of-my-darkness-people-dismissed-me-i-wanted-to-forget-forget-forget-10599548/

Sad story... May he find some peace 

[putrevus]

3 hours ago, AKane said:

Er.....   Ashwin has 383 wickets in 65 tests with 21.57 average in India.

 

Ashwin has  150 wickets in 40 tests at 30.55 average outside India

 

Ashwin's average in SENA is as follows

 

Australia  42.42

England    32.92

NZ             33

SA             49.63

 

I mean it is okay you like the fella but just look at him outside India..........

 

I am not trying to defend Ashwin.

 

Kumble being legspinner and his avgs

 

Aust:38

England:41,

NZ:41

SL:44

 

Other than one test where Ashwin did not win the match when had 450 runs in 2013 , he played mostly on green tracks in SA where avg score was 250.

 

Ashwin's averages  were fine as support bowler fr faster bowlers in SENA countries. Everywhere else he was the match winnner.

 

Ashwin was instrumental in India winning the series 2021 in Australia.He missed out on lot of tests due to Jadeja being selected for his batting.

 

Ashwin was different bowler  from 2015 onwards compared to his intial visits  2013-14 .

 

Show me one non Australian spinner who avg in 20s in Australia.

[Vilander]

On 3/20/2026 at 9:43 PM, vvvslaxman said:

To be honest even in ICF he was called oily rat. 

Its patheitc. I remember seeing comments from Sashtri mocking him on air. There is some bad blood between them. I think its no wonder that there is politics. 

[Vilander]

21 hours ago, sage said:

Exclusive | Why Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is pained: ‘Because of my dark skin, people dismissed me… I wanted to forget, forget, forget’

https://indianexpress.com/article/long-reads/why-l-sivaramakrishnan-is-pained-because-of-my-darkness-people-dismissed-me-i-wanted-to-forget-forget-forget-10599548/

India is so disgusting.

[Ultimate_Game]

I'm not really a big fan of BCCI and generally agree with anyone when they go against BCCI (except for Pak/PCB) but in this case I'm with BCCI. This is a "naach na jaane aangan tedha" situation.

[DeepSpace]

On 3/21/2026 at 3:30 PM, Lord said:

We abuse everyone equally. No discrimination there.

Also, rat does not necessarily mean black, although someone disgusting. Oily is because the fecker's head is always full of hair oil. One push it would starting dripping down his rat face.

 

I hate people who make excuses and use race, skin color to justify what happened to them.

[New guy]

19 minutes ago, DeepSpace said:

Also, rat does not necessarily mean black, although someone disgusting. Oily is because the fecker's head is always full of hair oil. One push it would starting dripping down his rat face.

 

I hate people who make excuses and use race, skin color to justify what happened to them.

Yes people who genuinely faced racism and talk about their experience are all lying.

 

It's hilarious how so many Indians keep downplaying racism and always attack victims. Anyone who grew up in India knows people who have darker skins are bullied a lot.

 

So you are the liar here denying reality. Some of the worst bigots on the planet. 

Edited March 31 by New guy

[DeepSpace]

On 3/30/2026 at 11:48 PM, New guy said:

Yes people who genuinely faced racism and talk about their experience are all lying.

 

It's hilarious how so many Indians keep downplaying racism and always attack victims. Anyone who grew up in India knows people who have darker skins are bullied a lot.

 

So you are the liar here denying reality. Some of the worst bigots on the planet. 

I faced numerous accounts of racism when I moved to USA. That is not the point. Obviously, he has faced discrimination because of his skin color. Question is are you making excuses with it. Looking through his x post, he seems bitter of other people's success, takes jabs and faces an inferiority complex.