There was a familiar Indian voice missing from the commentary box in the Indian Premier League (IPL) opening game on Saturday night.
And it turns out, Bhogle, whose association with Indian cricket spans at least two decades and who has been an integral part of the commentary box for the IPL since it’s debut season in 2008, was reportedly informed about the termination of his contract just a week back.
Harsha Bhogle’s commentating contract for the ninth season of the IPL has been terminated by the BCCI, reports Indian Express.
There has been no official reason stated for his termination, He even tweeted expressing disappointment over not being part of the IPL again.
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
Speculations of these two possible theories are doing the rounds:
>> 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 express his disappointment over a “certain Indian commentator”. Though the Bollywood veteran didn’t give out any names, everyone knew he was referring to Bhogle.
>> There was a heated argument that Bhogle reportedly had with a Vidharbha Cricket Associated official during India’s opening World T20 game at Nagpur last month.
Whatever the reasons, the reaction is so strong that ‘Harsha Bhogle’ became a top trend on Twitter on Sunday. Here how tweeople reacted.
@bhogleharsha @IPL – commentary without Harsha is like a pizza without exotic toppings.. Miss the attention to detail.
— Ankit Madhwani (@caankitmadhwani) April 9, 2016
No @bhogleharsha Sudhu us back. Am changing my view on #IPL16 Court shd ban it fully for wasting water & for insulting India's intelligence
— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) April 9, 2016
Ridiculous decision to take @bhogleharsha off air for IPL. https://t.co/PweetJ5W3Y
— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) April 10, 2016
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
.@bhogleharsha @IPL Hard to imagine a commentary box without Harsha Bhogle.
Don't worry. Management is temporary, Talent is Permanent.
— MS (@connectwithms) April 10, 2016
No CSK, No RR and now No @bhogleharsha.. Another reason not to watch #IPL9 @IPL
— chandrashekar (@ChandruSkr) April 9, 2016
Bhogle thanked people for their ‘overwhelming’ support.
Thank you very much. I am deeply moved and overwhelmed.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 10, 2016
