IPL 2018: BCCI Criticised for Not Involving Indian Commentators in Playoffs

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) recent decision to restrict the number of Indian commentators to only two- Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar, for the IPL playoff games, hasn’t gone down well with former players, of late.

Meanwhile, some officials of the cricketing board revealed in a gathering that the Indians weren’t as good as the foreigners.

However, this has irked a lot of former cricketers who have expressed their dissatisfaction in this regard.

BCCI, however, was using at least four commentators in the last 10 years for the playoffs stage. They failed to justify the reason why they added more foreign commentators than Indians.

The likes of Simon Doull, Graeme Smith, Michael Slater, Mathew Hayden and Michael Clarke were a few of the names on the panel apart from Manjrekar and Gavaskar.

When TOI spoke to the authorities concerned, they declined to comment on the issue.

They also confirmed BCCI has indeed got a complaint about involving only two commentators for this year’s IPL.

Even a former cricketer, who wanted to be anonymous, admitted that in IPL more Indians should get the opportunity.

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

Meanwhile, BCCI has shortlisted five Indian commentators for the inaugural Test series against Afghanistan.

The team includes Gavaskar, Manjerekar, Harsha Bhogle, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Murali Karthik.

Concluding, it is also likely at least two or three more foreigners will get on the panel prior to the Test.

However, there are no hard and fast rules when Hindi commentators are selected for the broadcast stint.

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