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| Edited By: G Krishnan |Source: DNA webdesk |Updated: Sep 19, 2017, 04:59 PM IST
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is a generous body when it comes to hiring overseas professionals. But it defies logic when it is doing so at the expense of its own home grown experts.
The BCCI has engaged three Australians – Brett Lee, Michael Clarke and Brad Hogg – to call on the on-going limited-overs series between India and Australia along with India’s Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Murali Kartik and Harsha Bhogle.
Do we really need three Australians to commentate on the series at the cost of India’s talents such as Laxman Sivaramakrishnan? This, when the series is in India and not Australia.
It is a practice to have commentators from the visiting country to throw more insights. But three Australians in the English commentary box is really a crowd.
Sivaramakrishnan has been a regular season after season since the early part of this millennium. That is nearly 15 seasons of international series at home. Until Sunday, that is, when the first ODI between India and Australia in Sivaramakrishnan’s home town Chennai was conspicuous by his absence.
The BCCI had announced last month Sivaramakrishnan as the first stand-by commentator for home international matches just in case any of the four appointed had any conflict of interest.
That Gavaskar took the necessary measures to not fall into any conflict of interest has relegated the former India leg-spinner and Gavaskar’s India team-mate in the 1980s to commentating on India’s domestic season.
It is reliably learnt that Sivaramakrishnan will be part of the commentary panel for the first domestic match to be telecast on Star Sports, the day-night Duleep Trophy final in Lucknow from September 25.
Sivaramakrishnan deserved a better deal than be relegated to calling on just domestic matches. The self-taught Sivaramakrishnan has done a decent job over the years as a commentator, explaining the finer points of spin, particularly leg-spin, and enlightening the viewers with his crisp calling and not talking just the obvious.
Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Manjrekar and Sivaramakrishnan have been regulars on the television commentary scene for a long period. While Shastri has moved on to be the chief coach of the Indian team, Gavaskar and Manjrekar cannot be overlooked. But, Sivaramakrishnan should not have been dropped to accommodate a third Australian.
While the English commentators are contracted by BCCI, the Hindi commentators are contracted by the broadcasters Star Sports. It must be mentioned that the official broadcasters in England, Australia or South Africa encourage more of their own nationalities and usually have only one visiting commentator in their panel.
In dropping the former Tamil Nadu leg-spinner, BCCI has only encouraged more job opportunities for retired overseas players. Just like in the Indian Premier League where each team’s support staff has more foreigners than Indians, thus denying home grown experts the chance to prove their mettle.
