Harsha Bhogle talks about his sacking and conversation with Amitabh Bachchan

The most popular and the fan favorite cricket commentators in India Harsha Bhogle is no longer allowed to air his views in live matches. He was a part of the commentary panel for all major matches the Indian team featured in but since last year after he reportedly criticized the Indian team on air he hasn’t been signed for commentary. But that hasn’t stopped Harsha from expressing his views.

Millions of cricket fans follow him on social media platforms and to quench his own desire to dig into the game further he has been writing columns for some of the major publications as well. In an interview with Economic Times, the former commentator was asked to name his friends in the Indian team and he diverted the question saying it’s sometimes good to not have too many friends.

“I don’t know. Sometimes it’s good not to have too many. But I do miss the generation that’s gone. Sachin [Tendulkar], Rahul [Dravid], Anil [Kumble], Sourav [Ganguly], Srinath, [VVS] Laxman… It was a beautiful generation, where I never had to worry about what I’m saying. When Sachin was struggling, I once said, `Here’s an emperor walking the streets like a common man’. I did not hear back from anyone that, `Sachin did not like that’.” Harsha said.

“I could be completely frank, to the extent that Sourav on air asked me my opinion on something. I declined and told Sourav that he was the one who had played at the highest level. And he said, `How many World Cups have you covered? Go ahead, I want to know what you think’.”

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He was sacked without clarification or presenting a substantial reason for it. But being a motivational speaker himself Bhogle took that by the stride and immediately had other offers to work on. “No one told me what the matter [the reason for his sacking] was. If someone had said ‘You’re not good enough’, that would’ve been fine. Some big players have been told that. Suppose I was told I violated a broadcasting ethic, even that would have been fine. But nobody could look me in the face and tell me, `This is the reason’. Eventually, I said if that’s what it is, that’s what it is. It’s been the biggest learning experience of my career. Offers started coming right away. Everyone thinks doors are shut, which is true… (pause)…but windows are open,” he said.

The particular incident that led to his sacking was when Bollywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan during a match tweeted that he was not quite happy with the commentators being way too critical of the Indian team. That tweet was for record retweeted by the then Indian skipper MS Dhoni with a caption ‘Nothing to add’. “We are different people in different situations. I actually wrote to Mr. Bachchan. I sent him a DM [Direct Message], saying how for the past 40 years I have admired him.” Harsha said while talking about Amitabh’s post.

“When I was in college in Hyderabad, and if his film was releasing on Friday, a friend of mine would bunk class on Monday to get tickets for the Saturday show.I also admired him for the dignity with which he carried himself. And I said in the message to him that given a chance, I will be happy to come and explain things to him.”

He received a delayed response from the megastar but didn’t chose to reveal what was expressed in the DM and just said, “It was polite.”

As an English commentator, the role is to give a true perspective the game and commend and pull up a team or player depending on how the match is panning out without tilting towards one side since English audience is from around the world.

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“What I did explain [to Bachchan] was that on the Hindi telecast, we were very India-centric, though not biased because the telecast was going only to this market. But we couldn’t do that with the English telecast, as it was going to various countries. In the past, Indian listeners would get angry when foreign commentators did not speak enough about the Indian team. We cannot be like that to the others.” Bhogle said.

He also went on to express that the eligibility of having played cricket to be a commentator doesn’t make sense since you don’t need to have driven a truck to sell one and Ratan Tata has certainly proved that. “The image created in our cricket is if you haven’t played, you can’t live,” Bhogle says. “It stems from insecurity and arrogance. How many trucks did Ratan Tata drive? Does it mean he can’t run his company? It’s a very narrow way of looking at things.

“The new generation of Indians is intolerant of reputations. They’ll say `so what if you have played 50 Tests. Are you telling me a good story?'” Harsha signed off saying.