Harsha Bhogle is one of the most renowned and popular cricket journalists, analysts, and writers. He has been doing this job for more than twenty years now and has been part of many great matches. He is the only Indian commentator to date who hasn’t played for India or any state level. Such is the craziness of cricket for Harsha Bhogle. The cricket world admires him a lot and looks up to him as an inspiration. But Harsha has been involved in a controversy for the first time and a one that might hamper his reputation.
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This week, England’s ODI squad was hit by Covid 19, and seven players tested positive. Three squad members and four staff members gave out positive results, which meant the whole team had to go in isolation. Harsha Bhogle tweeted that the virus is nowhere to go and would stay here for a while, and people should learn to adapt to it. In the same tweet, he mentions that the “Chinese Virus” has entered the England bio-bubble. He added that the bio bubbles need to become more stringent to reduce this. According to the WHO guidelines, the disease should not be associated with any nationality or ethnicity. That’s the same reason why the Delta variant isn’t named after India, even though the first cases of the Delta variant were found in India. After this tweet circulated, the cricket fans and people around the world slammed Harsha for such an obscure choice of words that could have been easily avoided. This time even Indian fans were not backing him because the virus shouldn’t be associated with any country. People from other countries posted critical tweets such as, “And Indians get mad if we say Indian virus…oh the irony.”
Harsha later clarified that he noticed the use of the South African variant, the Brazil variant, and the Indian variant. He guessed it is the norm to refer to something by the country of origin. Such minor controversies can hamper Harsha’s illustrious career and be more careful regarding sensitive topics worldwide. Everyone should now move past this and hope no one repeats this.
