What led to Harsha Bhogle's ouster from IPL 2016?
In a surprising turn of events, eminent cricket pundit and commentator Harsha Bhogle had his contract with the Indian Premier League (IPL) terminated, ahead of the start of the tournament's 9th season on Saturday, 9 April.
With the termination, this will now be the first season of IPL to not feature Harsha Bhogle. He had been art of the Mumbai Indians media team in the first season in 2008, and was part of the commentary panel in the subsequent seven seasons.
While the tournament's broadcast rights belong to Sony Network, it is the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that manages the production.
Bhogle took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce that he would no longer be part of the T20 cricket league, adding that he had actually been looking forward to being part of it.
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
A report in Indian Express has revealed that Bhogle was provided no explanation by BCCI for his sudden removal.
The report also revealed that a verbal spat had occurred between Bhogle and a Vidharbha Cricket Association (VCA) official during India's World T20 opener against New Zealand last month.
Bhogle was reportedly forced to climb up and down several flights of stairs while switching between English and Hindi commentary during the game, due to the door to the VIP box remaining shut. When Bhogle complained, he is said to have had a furious exchange with an official.
While it is not known whether the incident led to the termination of his contract, Bhogle was quoted by the daily as saying, “Working on a tight deadline, because of running around, I was at times panting as I went on air. This was because of that shut door. Even if it was the Nagpur incident, no one heard my part of the story.”
Earlier, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan had taken a dig at Bhogle's commentary after India's thrilling 1-run win over Bangladesh at World T20 with this tweet:
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
Bachchan's view had also been seconded by Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who, at the time, tweeted:
Nothing to add https://t.co/8rBel3vw4o
— Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni) March 23, 2016
While Bhogle's removal has grown into a full-blown controversy, senior BCCI officials have so far refused to come up with an explanation.
First published: 10 April 2016, 4:34 IST
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