“This was on the cards…” He announces in total grief when Ashley Giles shatters Sachin Tendulkar’s stumps with his left arm spin, and also shattering the Indian chase in Natwest Trophy final at Lords, 2002. We can feel the pain in his voice as he uttered those words. But an hour later, when Yuvraj pulls a ball to the fence, we can actually visualize him jumping like a kid as he says “Wait, are we on to something here?” Thus are powers of his words which remain in the memory tagged with such special matches to make them even more memorable.
Yeah, I am talking about Harsha Bhogle, my favorite commentator, Cricket host. In the era of either biased or boring cricket commentators, he delivers the most polished and diplomatically patriotic comments. Being an IIM grad, he could have been happy doing some over paid job and living a lavishing life. Instead he chooses to follow his first love, cricket. We think, by the time people graduate from institutes like IIM, they will be squeezed to become a nerd but not is the case with Mr.Bhogle. He was also the captain of IIM A cricket team. Not sure how that went on but glad that he decided to pursue his off field cricketing skills rather than on field to entertain people. I think like his fellow Hyderabadi mates, Azhar and Laxman, the artistic touch is by birth to him.
Cricket in itself has undergone many changes over the years. Now, more often than not we are witnessing the commercial and entertainment format of the game compared to good old grueling test matches. Though cricket brings lot of excitement by itself but it’s incomplete without its proper packaging. This is where names like Lalit Modi, Harsha Bhogle raise the bar as per the current market needs. The joy of switching on the TV and Harsha sitting in the studio with his enthusiastic gesture and at least one debatable point is parallel to nothing. His views on Mohammd Yousuf's retirement to IPL franchise’s buying or from Kamran Akmal’s keeping to India’s new ball woes, everything will have something to ponder upon. One of his hilarious tweet I read after Dhoni’s heroics in India’s warm up match “dhoni was batting like it was a video game and he knew the cheat codes! nothing went to a fielder!!”
Once I was switched on the TV to check the score after a match. My brother was next to me. This is the story before the “WWW” days. Our TV had fallen sick and there was no volume. Harsha was holding the mike and saying some thing, we were getting restless to see the result. My brother said, “I am sure we have lost the match, see Harsha’s face has become so dull and small, am sure we have lost very badly”. And he was right! The best thing about Harsha is, along with his age his style, views and comments got better, just like his hair! Who can forget the delightful comment he made about Mahela, “when jayawardene is batting you almost get the feeling he doesn't want to hurt the ball.”
Thanks to the world of twitter, he is more connected with his followers now. Not only listening and watching him on the TV is wonderful but his tweets are something which I follow religiously. Working with other professionals like Boycott, Alan Wilkins, Sunny, Shastri, Tony, Sidhu, Sanjay he made sure he stays on top. With due respect to all of them, some of the names mentioned above have reached their retirement age in terms of their comments as they hardly speak something new but Harsha will remain evergreen. I hope for the IPL’11 he will be back as a commentator than a TV host, as it’s a pleasure to listen to him with the live action. I always say, “The moment Sachin retires, not only me but 50% of cricket lovers might stop watching cricket” But there is one small hope that if Harsha continues to commentate, you may find some people still hooked on television sets.
Yeah, I am talking about Harsha Bhogle, my favorite commentator, Cricket host. In the era of either biased or boring cricket commentators, he delivers the most polished and diplomatically patriotic comments. Being an IIM grad, he could have been happy doing some over paid job and living a lavishing life. Instead he chooses to follow his first love, cricket. We think, by the time people graduate from institutes like IIM, they will be squeezed to become a nerd but not is the case with Mr.Bhogle. He was also the captain of IIM A cricket team. Not sure how that went on but glad that he decided to pursue his off field cricketing skills rather than on field to entertain people. I think like his fellow Hyderabadi mates, Azhar and Laxman, the artistic touch is by birth to him.
Cricket in itself has undergone many changes over the years. Now, more often than not we are witnessing the commercial and entertainment format of the game compared to good old grueling test matches. Though cricket brings lot of excitement by itself but it’s incomplete without its proper packaging. This is where names like Lalit Modi, Harsha Bhogle raise the bar as per the current market needs. The joy of switching on the TV and Harsha sitting in the studio with his enthusiastic gesture and at least one debatable point is parallel to nothing. His views on Mohammd Yousuf's retirement to IPL franchise’s buying or from Kamran Akmal’s keeping to India’s new ball woes, everything will have something to ponder upon. One of his hilarious tweet I read after Dhoni’s heroics in India’s warm up match “dhoni was batting like it was a video game and he knew the cheat codes! nothing went to a fielder!!”
Once I was switched on the TV to check the score after a match. My brother was next to me. This is the story before the “WWW” days. Our TV had fallen sick and there was no volume. Harsha was holding the mike and saying some thing, we were getting restless to see the result. My brother said, “I am sure we have lost the match, see Harsha’s face has become so dull and small, am sure we have lost very badly”. And he was right! The best thing about Harsha is, along with his age his style, views and comments got better, just like his hair! Who can forget the delightful comment he made about Mahela, “when jayawardene is batting you almost get the feeling he doesn't want to hurt the ball.”
Thanks to the world of twitter, he is more connected with his followers now. Not only listening and watching him on the TV is wonderful but his tweets are something which I follow religiously. Working with other professionals like Boycott, Alan Wilkins, Sunny, Shastri, Tony, Sidhu, Sanjay he made sure he stays on top. With due respect to all of them, some of the names mentioned above have reached their retirement age in terms of their comments as they hardly speak something new but Harsha will remain evergreen. I hope for the IPL’11 he will be back as a commentator than a TV host, as it’s a pleasure to listen to him with the live action. I always say, “The moment Sachin retires, not only me but 50% of cricket lovers might stop watching cricket” But there is one small hope that if Harsha continues to commentate, you may find some people still hooked on television sets.
