Harsha Bhogle, the famous and familiar voice behind IPL matches, has been given a termination for his commentating contract regarding the 9th season of Indian Premier League as per BCCI’s decision. It came to notice when the spectators didn’t get to hear his effortless commentary in the opening game between Mumbai Indians and Pune Supergiants.
Bhogle, was associated with Indian cricket for over 2 decades now. He has been an essential part of the commentary box for the IPL since its first season back in 2008. But the sad and shocking news is his reported termination about which he was informed just a week back.
As far as the main reason behind this decision by the BCCI is not known by the public or maybe it was unethical to make it public. Guessing what it can be is not illegal so let’s hover through the supposed reasons behind this out of the mark termination.
Bhogle told the newspaper that he is isn’t aware of 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.” He took to Twitter to show his disappointment.
Would have been nice to be part of @IPL again. Was in fact looking forward to it. Favourite tournament. Hope #IPL9 is a blockbuster.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 9, 2016
While BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur and IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla dismissed the media when asked to comment on the issue but a senior BCCI official, on condition of secrecy, 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 conjectured reasons are said to be these two in particular: 1. It could be because a personality no less than Amitabh Bachchan took to twitter after India’s last ball nail-biting victory over Bangladesh in the World T20 game on March 24, to voice his discontent over a particular Indian commentator who “spoke more about the opponent plays than ours”. Though the Bollywood veteran didn’t give out any names, everyone knew he was referring to Bhogle, who in turn clarified his stance on his FB page. 2. There was an intense argument that Bhogle reportedly had with a Vidarbha Cricket Association official at some point in India’s opening World T20 game at Nagpur last month. All of this did get Bhogle a trending spot on Twitter and after his tweet many others came and supported him and his efficient talent.
IPL should get back Harsha Bhogle into the commentary box & drop Sidhu instead. Value will go up, and more importantly, volume will go down. — Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) April 10, 2016
Harsha Bhogle is the best commentator India has ever had. Sacking him to assuage some social media jingoistic fools is a moronic act — The Bad Doctor (@DOCTORATLARGE) April 10, 2016
Harsha Bhogle is probably the best cricket commentator we have. Scratch the probably. — Kiran Manral (@KiranManral) April 10, 2016
Harsha on receiving end of such immense support from his fans, thanked them all through Twitter again.
Thank you very much. I am deeply moved and overwhelmed.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 10, 2016
