Harsha Bhogle

The game of cricket was a mystery to me until 1995. Often I wondered why the player threw the ball high up in the air after catching it, later I realized that it was a gesticulation of joy. Many trivial fragments of the game were cryptic to me. Then the commentary behind helped me tons and tons to know the game better and savor its taste.

This Chit-Chat Club is the ‘Fourth Umpire Team’. What brought them here, how did they choose this occupation and their narrow lane of profession leading to a wide space of success-story.

Harsha Bhogle, the man who comes with his mates’ hours in advance to the commencement of the match. Screening their past match performances, strategizing the two teams, an intelligent prediction about the winning team are the key ingredients of their chatty styled comments.

People who think that this work can be done by anyone, it is wrong. Harsha has the pulse for cricket. He was a graduate from IIM-A, leaving his job at an advertising agency he took up this profession of a full-time cricket commentator.

Pause…

Can the match be watched without commentaries? Just like a mute-film. Personally I cannot, if you die for the game perhaps you may. When there is no cheer for a boundary or a sixer, no loud claim for a wicket taken, null comments of who is batting, what is likely to happen…. The game mutes, the spirit too.

These people do the job of narrating the progress of the game with the spirit; it is the same spirit in us that keeps us at the edge of the chair in the last over.

Resume…

Harsha’s entry was in the year 1992, the year Wasim got the most wickets, and Pakistan clinched the World Cup beating England at the soils of Australia. Bhogle was invited by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, kindling his career. This marked the beginning to the career life of Harsha on a broad horizon. Leaping from ABC to BBC, he settled with ESPN. Still the voyage of this chap is continuing with seasonal appearances in CNN-IBN during the IPL, Discovery channel shows and so on made his career-success go to its summit.

Had the team of commentators not been there, the muted version of the willows and balls cannot be enjoyed.

Hats off to the team of ‘Few Good Men’!  Please keep the ship of cricket and vocal cords waves together.

Bon Voyage!

Tags: ABC, BBC, Chit Chat Club, Commentary, Commentator, Cricket, ESPN, Fourth Umpire, Harsha Bhogle, IIM-A, Match