MS Dhoni and Harsha Bhogle - The curious relationship between a star and a broadcaster

Last night's post-match featuring MS Dhoni and Harsha Bhogle was what you can call a broadcaster's dream. Harsha received numerous messages after that and took to Twitter to thank everyone. Every Chennai Super Kings game, we see a genuine joy in Harsha's face when he speaks to Dhoni and you'll find at least a couple of tweets about him during the match. That, for some reason, takes me back to an incident that happened seven years ago.

Who doesn't remember that chaotic Bengaluru game in the 2016 T20 World Cup? Bangladesh, somehow, ended up losing the game and it kept India alive in the tournament. After the game, actor Amitabh Bachchan took aim at a certain Indian commentator for not praising Indian players enough and focusing more on Bangladeshi players. 

Harsha Bhogle, Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar were the Indian commentators in that match and Bachchan Sr. clarified that the latter two were not being targeted. 

That left him with Harsha, one of the world's most favourite voices. It was clear that Bachchan Sr. was pointing fingers at the Voice of Cricket.

But what surprised many was that the Indian captain Dhoni, known to be a calm man, quoted that tweet, saying, "Nothing to add." Here was Indian cricket's most influential man showing displeasure about Harsha's commentary. 

Harsha tried to explain this by saying  that the English feed is broadcast across the globe - not just to the Indian audience - hence the need of staying objective and focusing on both teams, not just India. He even sent a direct message to Bachchan Sr. 

But Dhoni is virtually unreachable to everyone when he is off the field. 

And just a week before the IPL began, the BCCI terminated Harsha's contract. It was clear that Dhoni's comment led to his sacking.

Why Dhoni made that comment is baffling. He was certainly not listening to the commentary. 

But over the years, Harsha has been asked numerous times about that period and he said it was probably the "best time" in many years in his career.

Being a very positive person, Harsha has always seen the glass half full. He obviously incurred a financial and professional loss. But he never took it to heart. Then one fine day, he got involved with cricbuzz and its live shows became the go-to cricket talk show. 

Despite all these, Harsha didn't have anything against Dhoni. He didn't let negativity creep into him. There was no hard feeling. He often refers to him as "The great man". After his retirement, Harsha wrote, " What Dhoni achieved goes way beyond numbers he produced. He told young Indians in small towns that they could conquer the world. To them he was the beacon, he was the dream that maybe they could achieve too."

It has not been an easy journey for someone like him, being an outsider. But Harsha never shied away from stating the facts. He is the only Indian broadcaster who has often questioned the outdated T20 approach of the Indian star players. He does his homework and understands the dynamics of modern-day cricket. 

I read this book called "Cricket 2.0" by Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde that narrated how T20 cricket modernised and revolutionised the game of cricket. They requested two people to write the foreword and one of them was Harsha. After all these years, he still remains relevant. 

Forget everything else. The way he handled the issue with Dhoni gives us a great life lesson. If you remain honest and true to your principles, you will get what you deserve - sooner or later. Harsha got sacked in April 2016 and in April 2023, he is interviewing the person who was quite possibly the reason for his ouster, to a lot of acclaim.