BCCI smashed for overlooking most of the Indian commentators for IPL play-offs

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India risk facing severe flak from former cricketers for their decision to overlook Indian commentators for the play-off matches in this year’s IPL. Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar were the only two Indian commentators involved during the play-offs.

The 2018 season of the Indian Premier League was a phenomenal success for all the right reasons as the MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings sealed a fairytale return to the competition by their third IPL trophy as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. But while BCCI authorities bask in the glory of the IPL’s success, there seemed to be some sort of unrest amongst the former Indian cricketers over the lack of Indian commentators for the play-off phase of the IPL.

The BCCI took the risk of restricting the total number of Indian commentators for the latter half of the IPL to just two, Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar, which did not go down well with certain senior cricketers. A few senior former players have raised the issue with the BCCI especially after a present BCCI official apparently claimed at a private gathering of the official broadcaster that the Indians weren’t as good as the foreigners when it came to the commentary.

“The board all of sudden is finding that the Indian commentators aren’t good at speaking in English. Does BCCI have a problem with the Indian accent?” a source told TOI.

The BCCI were using the services of at least four commentators since 2008 for the play-off games and they weren’t able to justify why they took a different route this year by opting to have more foreigners as commentators.

This is our Indian Premier League and the priority should be given to the Indians first. This has been the norm for the last 10 years, why is it changing right now?” a former captain told TOI.

Meanwhile, the BCCI shortlisted five potential commentators for the inaugural India-Afghanistan Test match which will be played from June 12 in Bangalore. The team had the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Harsha Bhogle, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, and Murali Karthik.

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