‘No Harsha Bhogle, No Party!’ – Fans react as list of commentators for Asia Cup 2023 gets announced

The Asia Cup 2023 is team India’s next major multi-lateral assignment. The continental competition starts on August 30 with Pakistan and Nepal clashing in the opener in Multan. On the other hand, team India will kickstart their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on September 2 in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The marquee continental tournament will be co-hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka in a hybrid model due to India’s reservations about travelling to Pakistan, given the geopolitical tensions between the neighbouring nations.

However, in a recent announcement, the list of commentators for the marquee event was announced. There were several talking points about the list, which on paper looks like an impressive panel. However, issues like lack of representation from Bangladesh and missing names of marquee commentators like Aakash Chopra and Harsha Bhogle were also questioned.

PCB extended invitation to Jay Shah to attend Asia Cup opener in Multan

In recent news, it was revealed that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had sent invitations to the cricket board heads of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) member bodies. This includes Indian Cricket Board’s honorary secretary Jay Shah. A source close to the developments of PCB opened up on the invitation to Jay Shah.

“The PCB has basically followed up on the invitation which was extended verbally by Chairman Zaka Ashraf to Jay Shah when they both met in Durban for the Apex Council meeting,” the source said. “The PCB was obviously embarrassed after the Pakistani media reported that Jay Shah had accepted Zaka Ashraf’s invitation and the Indian board official later flatly denied this,” they added.

Here’s the full list of commentators for the Asia Cup 2023: Gautam Gambhir, Ravi Shastri, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Andy Flower, Sanjay Manjrekar, Bazid Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Marvan Atapattu, Irfan Pathan, Matthew Hayden, Sanjay Bangar, Aamer Sohail, Piyush Chawla, Dominic Cork, Mohammed Kaif, Aditya Tare, Rajat Bhatia, Deep Dasgupta.

There will also be special panels for commentary in regional languages like Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, etc. However, for the Hindi panel, a few names from the worldwide commentary panel mentioned above could repeat with Harbhajan Singh set to spearhead the Hindi Team.

Here’s how fans reacted:

https://twitter.com/anngrypakiistan/status/1692729146151952839

https://twitter.com/TheCrickFun/status/1692732836011549178