How I wish IPL was covered by ESPNSTAR!

How I wish IPL was covered by ESPNSTAR now that another of my favourite commentators -- Sanjay Manjrekar, has also joined the team. I always thought Sanjay was underutilized by Tensports by making him the host and not the expert commentator. And in ESPNSTAR with Harsha playing the perfect host, it would be refreshing to hear Sanjay's impeccable views and analysis on the game which after a few centuries of existence is still evolving and evolving at a faster pace than ever before! I had written something about the Voice of Indian Cricket in praise of Harsha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar a couple of years back. I thought its a good time to reproduce that here now that both will be working as part of the same team:

The Voice of Indian Cricket
I remember Harsha Bhogle once saying that when Sunny padded up for his innings as a commentator, he wanted to become the “Voice of Indian Cricket” like Tony Cozier is to West Indian Cricket. For all my respect for Sunny, I can at the most see him as the face of Indian Cricket and not quite the voice of Indian cricket. I used to wonder if the man who narrated Sunny’s wish himself was a better fit for that tag. For someone who started radio commentary when he was just a school student, he could seamlessly alternate between radio and TV commentary. His writings on cricket make you wonder if Peter Roebuck is over rated and has a few fan clubs in the cricket mad countries – India & Australia, Harsha Bhogle seems to be fitting the bill perfectly as the “Voice of Indian Cricket”

But then, how can a guy who hasn’t played competitive cricket beyond the university level be called the “Voice of Indian Cricket”? .So what if Tony Cozier was never a competent cricketer and still be called the “Voice of West Indies Cricket’. Probably West Indies didn’t have any good cricketer turned commentators during that time. But India certainly has no dearth of cricketers turned commentators (by the way is there any well known cricketer who hasn’t turned a commentator yet?) and that too very competent ones. Ravi, Sunny, LS, Sidhu, Sanjay and the list goes on. Why can’t one of them in this long list be called the “Voice….’.For someone who loves his dose of channel 9 commentary, I am not particularly a great fan of most of these commentators except for Sanjay (He’s a class act). It is too stereotypical for my liking. I can almost predict what they would say depending on the match situation.

Sanjay Manjrekar’s foray into TV commentary brought a whiff of fresh air for the Indian viewer who cherished his dose of honest and intellectual commentary. In my opinion, he’s the best Indian ‘cricketer turned commentator’ by some distance. He’s made tremendous strides as a commentator. I remember watching him on TV in his first year as a commentator; he seemed to be literally hero-worshiping Sachin and somehow could never find a flaw in Sachin, even when almost everyone else seemed to be thinking otherwise. Sometimes he appeared to be too much in awe of some of the personalities like the Chappell brothers for him to even disagree with them. But then as he grew in stature he shed his inhibitions of his personal preferences and grew more neutral in his perspective.

The Sanjay Manjrekar of now is a dream of a commentator with neither a put on accent nor a complicated vocabulary. His knowledge of the game is immaculate, his views and insights on the game are absolutely unbiased and grounded on sound cricketing logic and his writings on the game are the one of an honest man who knows and cares about his sport. I remember an interview of Sanjay by Harsha Bhogle in ESPN, in which Harsha said that Sanjay’s the most honest cricketer that he’s seen, to which Sanjay replied that it’s the only way he knows to live. He does not mind questioning Sachin’s attitude (and also the repercussions of doing that), doesn’t believe that regional selection committees have been as big a problem for India’s lack of success as the lack of skill and doesn’t mince words when it comes to the question of an even contest between the bat and the ball.

I’ve put my case forward. Harsha Bhogle or Sanjay Manjrekar – Who’s the “Voice of Indian Cricket”? Take your pick. Whom would I go for? If competency as a cricketer is not brought into the equation, I would go for Harsha Bhogle and if competency as a cricketer is important then, I can’t think of anyone beyond Sanjay Manjrekar.

Harsha and Sanjay – Thanks a ton for making cricket watching a better experience!