Cricket fans were surprised when Harsha Bhogle was quietly dropped from the commentary team of IPL’s latest season. His voice had been a fixture around Indian cricket for decades, and it was rumoured that he had fallen out of favour with BCCI’s higher ups. Now it turns out one of India’s most loved cricketer will start a new innings at Times Internet-owned Cricbuzz.
Delighted to announce that I have signed with @cricbuzz. Will do articles, video blogs, analyses. Looking forward to meeting you there!
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 19, 2016
At Cricbuzz, Bhogle will be working on articles, video blogs and doing analysis. Cricbuzz already has a big name in its roster – former opener Virender Sehwag already lends his expert analysis on its platform.
Last year, Bhogle had run into controversy when he’d supposedly favoured the opposition during his commentary. Amitabh Bachchan had sent out an tweet implying that an Indian commentator should speak more about their own players than the opposition, and skipper MS Dhoni had added fuel to the fire by seemingly agreeing with Bachchan. Neither had explicitly named Bhogle.
T 2184 – With all due respects, it would be really worthy of an Indian commentator to speak more about our players than others all the time.
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) March 23, 2016
Nothing to add https://t.co/8rBel3vw4o
— Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni) March 23, 2016
Bhogle had clarified his stand, saying that the broadcast he was a part of was an international stream and was telecast around the world. As such, it would’ve been inappropriate for him to favour India.
But had been dropped from the IPL soon after, much to his surprise.
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
Luckily, being dropped from TV isn’t the end of the road these days. It’s the digital age, and the web is where the action is at. Cricbuzz has done well to snap him up – crickets fans around India will be eager to hear that voice again.