Indian Players Also Involved In Banning Harsha Bhogle From Commentary During IPL 9

A day after Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decision to dump Harsha Bhogle as a TV commentator met with push-back from cricket aficionados, it is now learnt that Indian players had a crucial role in the entire episode.

AFP

The mandarins in BCCI would want one to believe that it was Amitabh Bachchan's none-too flattering tweet about Indian commentators - purportedly aimed at Bhogle - was a reflection of public opinion and the real reason for his ouster.

The 54-year-old articulate commentator, with 20 years of broadcast experience, had apparently earned the ire of the Indian team and its management with his often frank comments and observations. The impression that has gained credence over a period of time is that he was critical of Team India's policies, pitch policy in particular - be it in the Tests or recent World Twenty20; several players seem to have gone with their grouse against Bhogle to the BCCI bosses.

Twitter

His critical views may not be all that unfair or unreasonable but certainly not politically correct in the context of the BCCI. The BCCI-contracted commentators (in the past) have always maintained that they have never got instructions what to say or not during commentary but there are always a few no-go zones - particularly about the selection policy, pitch policy, captaincy, BCCI politics etc - and it is not clear at what point Harsha crossed that line. That he often posts comments on Twitter during commentary also seems to have gone against him.

Mumbai Mirror spoke to two members of the recent Indian team and they admitted that there were discussions about his commentary in the dressing room meetings although they claimed ignorance of a formal complaint having been filed against him at any stage. Neither of them, of course, would come on record.

The indication of Team India's impressions is reflected in an MS Dhoni re-tweet of Bachchan's March 23 post which read: T2184- With all due respects, it would be really worthy of an Indian commentator to speak more about our players than others all the time. Dhoni retweeted that with: "Nothing to add."

PTI

It is said that all commentary and umpiring postings for the IPL were vetted by Anurag Thakur but it is unlikely that the BCCI secretary was the initiator of this decision.

It looks like it's a collective decision of the BCCI top brass who have taken the inputs from the current players into consideration.

Harsha chose not to comment on the controversy but maintained that he doesn't know why he is dropped from the IPL commentary panel.

Recently, the BCCI changed its policy of handing long-term contracts to the commentators and has decided to hire them on a series-by-series basis and the information is that Harsha is likely to be back for the next assignment.