Harsha Bhogle on his new quiz show, India becoming a multi-sport country and female representation in sports

The star commentator is back on the small screen with the Ultimate Sports Quiz, he talks about the game show and why Dhoni is a much-loved sportsperson
Harsha Bhogle
Harsha Bhogle

Sports commentary in India has seen quite a few legendary names leave their indelible mark. But one man who continues to be the poster boy, particularly in the field of cricket commentary, is the dependable Harsha Bhogle. The witty, meticulous and charming expert commentator is now taking on a new role. Harsha turns host with the show Ultimate Sports Quiz, which will witness 27 school teams from across 22 cities compete for the coveted grand prize. However, Harsha has some experience in this area — he hosted the ESPN School Quiz in the early 2000s. In an interview with Indulge, he tells us more about the show, his love for sports and why women need more representation in sports. Excerpts:

What made you host the Ultimate Sports Quiz?
We had done a quiz show about 16 years ago and I was taken with the camaraderie and brotherhood that pervaded the world of sports quizzing far beyond the competition. There were kids who were going hard at each other literally like a contest, matching their wits against somebody else but they created friendships that have remained till date. For a lot of people watching it, it became a cult show. Even today, I get messages about when I am restarting this quiz because it was so much fun and people learnt a lot from the quiz, and their love for sports grew from it. So I thought let’s do it again.

At a time when there is an explosion of information and misinformation, how do you think sports news needs to be consumed?
Sometimes the messages you receive are true, sometimes they are not, so we need to be careful about what we read. If you get a sports forward on WhatsApp, please check it carefully because we are all now media entities, so don’t forward it unless you know it is true. The only way to go about absorbing more information is by watching a lot and reading a lot. A 100-word forward just gives information about the result. You don’t only want to know how many times Nadal has beaten Djokovic. You don’t only want to know how many times Federer has played Nadal. You want to see how a contest develops, so I hope more and more people get into watching sports, not just to see the highlights and results, but I hope they get interested to know what goes into the making of the result.

Are you involved in researching for the show and preparing questions?
There are people far better than me who do that. Sometimes when I look at the questions, I feel like thanking God that I am asking the questions and not answering them. Research has to be done specific to the competitors. Only if I relate to the answer, can I say something to make the competition more lively, so I go through the questions closely.

Tell us about your love for sports and what got you interested in being a commentator.
I loved sports and loved the idea of playing sports. But in those days, playing sports was not a career and you knew quickly where your limits lay. Part of everybody’s success in life is knowing your limits and demolishing them and trying to go further ahead, so I took a chance. But I also had another job, I couldn’t just say I am going to become a commentator because such a job didn’t exist. Two games a year were played at that time. One thing led to the other but I used to do programmes on radio; one of the reasons I relate to kids today is because I was the same kind of bubbly young person with a love for sports. I would do sports round-ups on the local radio. When local TV started to do sports round-ups I would do that. When the cricket commentary opportunity came, I had done some level of commentary and I knew about the sport and I had read a lot about it.

Although we are a cricket-loving country, many other sports are getting attention today. What are your thoughts on this?
One of the highest viewed programmes still is PV Sindhu’s final badminton match at the Olympics in 2016. I think that’s fantastic. I would love India to be a multi-sport country. The young generation loves football and I would encourage them to follow Indian football. But also because they are sports-loving, they will all know about Mary Kom as much as they know about young Nikhat Zareen who has just won the Women’s World Boxing Championship. When the Olympics come around, they follow Indian archery, wrestling, and boxing because they are interested in sports. However, there will also be a percentage of those people who are single sports watchers who will only watch football, badminton, kabaddi, or cricket. If we can have a sizable population watching all sports then we will become a multi-sport country.

Is it common for sportspersons to be impacted by feedback and commentary?
They shouldn’t because if they do, then they are exposing their weakness. For example, if you say that I am a terrible commentator, do I get impacted by that in my next performance? It’s part of growing up to handle criticism when you are performing. One of the things that cricketers learn is to forget about the previous ball, if you are two goals down, forget about it and think that now I need to win 3-0, if I am 10 points down in a quiz, I need to think about the next question. If the environment is bothering you, if you carry that bother to the next moment, then you are weakening yourself. It’s easier said than done.

What is your relationship with the younger players like?
You build relationships with people. Among these relationships, some are built on trust and some are transactional. I talk to younger players about not playing for the reward, about not worrying about the IPL riches, about investing their money wisely, and I talk to them about those things sometimes but not about how they should play. I don’t tell them to be careful or that their right shoulder is opening up a little bit or if they need to be careful about their elbows. I don’t want them to think ‘what does he know?’

What are your thoughts on female representation in sports?
Sports being a boys’ thing is the biggest nonsense you will ever hear. A lot of athletes make this terrible mistake of saying it’s a guy thing. I think it’s absolute nonsense. Everybody can play sports and it is one of the few things that everybody can participate in, whether you are a man or woman, whether you’re physically challenged, or whether you live in cities or villages. It opens up the world, it doesn’t consign people. More girls are playing sports. In the last Olympics, we had women in boxing, wrestling, archery, and athletics. They always get more medals.

What sports do you play during your downtime?
I would love to play a sport now, but my body tells a different story. However, I enjoyed playing cricket during my younger days. We grew up on a university campus and we would play every single sport — we played football and hockey apart from games like hide and seek, and pitto with seven stones. Growing up on the campus in Hyderabad was the biggest blessing I had as a child and that just created my love for the sport. I wish I could have played a little more tennis but I could not.

How has your journey with the IPL been and why is MS Dhoni still such a popular sportsman?
IPL is this monster that’s doing fantastic things for our cricket. It’s not just raising the level of people’s lives who are raising families but is also making them better cricketers just through the sheer knowledge of cricket around them. The IPL is the world’s finest congregation of knowledge. But it also buries things, and the moment you start to talk about it, you start burying everything else around it. Dhoni has been fantastic at sport, he has inspired a lot of people to play as well. I hope that the new generation coming through from Moradabad, Bhilwara, Salem, Gulbarga and Hubli say ‘I just don’t want to be the best in India, I want to be the best in the world.’

Ultimate Sports Quiz airs every weekend at 1 pm. On Sony Ten 1

ayeshatabassum@newindianexpress.com
@aishatax

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