While the entire country burst in celebrations following Team India’s nerve-wracking one-run win against Bangladesh in the ICC World T20 recently, there was one person who was not so happy. It had nothing to do with the Indian win but with the commentary.
Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan has been an ardent follower of Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Indian cricket team and has also shared his emotions on Twitter.
After India registered a close but important win over ‘The Tigers’ at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday, Big B, who kept a close eye on the game, was not too happy with the commentary.
Going by his tweet, it looks like Senior Bachchan was unhappy with the commentators who spoke more about other players rather than Indian players.
He tweeted, “With all due respects, it would be really worthy of an Indian commentator to speak more about our players than others all the time.
And he found the right support in India skipper Dhoni, who backed him.
“Nothing to add,” Dhoni tweeted while quoting Amitabh’s tweet as well.
Renowned cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle was taken aback after Bachchan-Dhoni tweet but also expressed his huge respect for the Bollywood star.
“I must confess to being a bit taken aback by the intensity of the criticism yesterday over the question of focussing more on Indian players during the telecast. It emerged after a tweet from Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, someone I admire enormously for the dignified way in which he has always conducted himself,” Bhogle wrote on his Facebook page. Bhogle also gave a detailed account on how commentators are supposed to look at a match.
“There are two kinds of broadcasts available to Indian viewers. One, on Star Sports 1 is the world feed. That is the telecast, and commentary that goes to everyone around the world. That includes passionate fans in Bangladesh and Pakistan, in South Africa, Australia, England, the USA, everywhere.
“That broadcast must necessarily be an objective, balanced portrayal of events,” he added on the Facebook post.
What they said
Amitabh Bachchan@ SrBachchan
With all due respects, it would be really worthy of an Indian commentator to speak more about our players than others all the time.
MS Dhoni then quoted Amitabh’s tweet and said Nothing to add.
Harsha Bhogle’s reply on Facebook
I must confess to being taken aback by the intensity of criticism yesterday over the question of focussing on Indian players... It emerged after a tweet from Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, someone I admire enormously for the dignified way in which he always conducted himself.
