Harsha Bhogle On How Much Cricket He’s Played

Brut India

“I have no issue with answering how much cricket I have played.” Not too long ago Sanjay Manjrekar tried to shut down Harsha Bhogle by saying he hadn’t played any first-class cricket. Here is what Bhogle said on the subject recently…

Transcript

00:00And that is why I hate it, absolutely hate it, when people give war parallels to cricket.

00:08I cannot stand those promos which talk about, jaan ki baazi lagayenge and yeh karenge and

00:13I don't know, it's a game.

00:31I played cricket for my university here.

00:33It's a very uncomfortable truth for a lot of people when they come to know that I played

00:37university and senior division cricket.

00:39It's a very uncomfortable truth because it's a good story to say that he never held a bat

00:45in his hand.

00:46I wasn't a great player, but I knew it as I keep telling people I played enough cricket

00:53in Hyderabad to understand the emotion of the game.

00:55I have no issue with people asking me how much cricket I've played because we live in

01:01a vibrant democracy.

01:02People can have their opinions.

01:03There's only one way and that is in the court of the public.

01:09What I do not like is that we don't give non-international test players a go because eventually we are

01:16storytellers.

01:17We are not instructors.

01:18A commentator is not an instructor, a commentator is not a physics teacher.

01:22A commentator is a storyteller who has been given the extraordinary privilege of telling

01:26people who are not at the ground what is happening there.

01:29So we are storytellers.

01:31So the storytellers can come from anywhere, but there is not a single non-cricketer player

01:39is being given an opportunity these days and hanging in there is a great value in life

01:43itself, which is what you're allowed to do in test match cricket.

01:48You can't hang in there in a one-day game.

01:51Dhoni does sometimes, but he scares us, but then he covers up afterwards.

01:57But watching Dhoni is like watching a movie or waiting up, up and then he finally goes.

02:01Someone told me, if you want to be an objective broadcaster, you cannot be close to players.

02:07But it was very difficult at that time because that was a fabulous generation.

02:11But Sachin, no, I could talk on Sachin for three hours.

02:15All I'll tell you about Sachin was Sachin was the master of the game, but behaved like

02:19the servant of the game.

02:27It was, it was an unmatched collection of human beings in our cricket, Rahul Dravid,

02:33VVS Lakshman, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, what, what giants that they also were good

02:40batsmen and bowlers was something else.

02:42But if India came out of match fixing and the scandal around them, it was because of

02:46outstanding people who are at the center of our cricket.

02:48And yet at the end of a test match, what happens?

02:54People shake hands.

02:56People shake hands and go.

02:57That is the best thing.

02:58And I hope that never goes out of a cricket because cricket is only a game.

03:03Sometimes we assign it way too much importance in society.

03:07It's just a game.

03:09It's nothing else.

03:10And that is why I hate it.

03:12Absolutely hate it.

03:13When people give war parallels to cricket, I cannot stand those promos which talk about

03:19jaan ki baasi lagayenge and yeh karenge and go, no, it's a game.

03:24At the end of the day, everyone goes back to their hotel rooms.

03:27Everyone goes back home.

03:28The sun still rises and you meet your family and your friends and your dear ones the next

03:32morning.

03:33Doesn't happen in war.

03:34So let's not demean war.

03:36Let's take a pledge.

03:37We will never ever equate sport to a war.

03:39It isn't.

03:40It's only a game.

03:42At the end of the day, you shake hands, you go back, say, what did I do wrong?

03:45Let me try hard.

03:46And it's the best way to live.

03:48While you're on the ground, you don't give an inch, not an inch conceded.

03:53You don't have to tell people anything because your aggression and your power and your determination

03:58is shown in your performance, not in your vocabulary.

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