Point Blank with Harsha Bhogle

Friday, 02 November 2007 20:00

Harsha Harsha Bhogle is a man with multiple personalities. When he is not in the commentary box, he contributes as a columnist in The Indian Express and writes on espnstar. While he has an art to draw opinions from the experts in the commentary box, he is forthright and calls spade a spade in his writings.

Ravi Shastri, Sunny Gavaskar, Geoffery Boycott, Navjot Singh Sidhu are more his friends now than peers. He started out as a 19 year old who had only one dream; that of becoming India's best commentator. Today, he has not only done that, but also remains one of the most humble celebrities. Er, he says that celebrity is an overabused term.

There is more to Harsha than cricket alone! In this Point Blank "interview", Harsha shares his experiences right from the time he was a teenager where he lent his voice on All India Radio; when he got his first international assignment in 1993 during the Hero Cup till the recent T20 World Cup.

Ask him about that moment when he knew that he had succeeded in what he had dreamt of, he plays it down modestly

Listen Online (128 kbps): 33 mins

Downloading episode: MP3 (30 MB)

Note: Right-click on the above MP3 link and chose "Save target as " or "save link as" to download the file on your computer.

View interview in video: Link

Comments

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0 #1 Alok Shukla 2007-11-03 20:54

Hey guys,

Great job, interviewing one of the greatest interviewer of our time, (as I like to call him the commentator among commentators) is not as easy as you made out to be.

Thou you covered a wide gamut in there, in and around cricket... I was just curious to know what are his future plans... apart from what he is doing right now... .

keep up the good work guys... this one is for the book... :-)
regards
Alok

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0 #2 Rajiv 2007-11-03 21:45

Lovely podcast. I was a fan of him. I am adore him now.

Thank you Harsha.

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0 #3 Vikramraj vijayan 2007-11-04 17:46

WOW !

Never had an indepth look into cricketing world. Harsha is right in many things what he said in this interview. Being the richest board what is the board doing to improve our stadium, improve in the standards of cricket in India.

The interview was amazing and had thrown light on, what a our crazy fans wouldnt think about.

Good job a Abhishek!

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0 #4 Vaibhav Agarwal 2007-11-04 23:32

Hi Abhi....

The only word i can say abt ur work is \"Awesome..Awesome..Awesome\"..u were simply superb...It was so good to hear that one of my classnate is interviewing Harsha B.. you were doing amazing job yaar..I really liked the interview..All the best for your future!!!!

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0 #5 shub 2007-11-05 04:47

Thoroughly enjoyed that one. The man\'s simply brilliant! Thank for providing the mp3 file - this one\'s for keeps :-)
and oh, may I link this one on my blog?

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0 #6 Anuraag 2007-11-05 06:03

Hi people...I have not heard the interview, as i am not a fan of Harsha Bhogle, but I am thrilled that you two have made it to this level of interviewing the great celebrities....All the best !

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0 #7 Abhishek 2007-11-05 06:26

Dear Anuraag!

You live up your virtue of being point blank frank, don\'t you? But, you know what, it is people like Bhogle who make us look good among our friends and other netizens. But, we are proud of what we do and prouder that people like Bhogle and the likes are still around to lend their time for all we cricket lovers...

But, do listen to it even if you are not a Bhogle fan. I think you might like what you hear. Thanks for your kind words!

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0 #8 Kartick 2007-11-05 07:10

When you\'re editing an audio cast, why would you keep the line, \'let the camera pan to the man...\' SHOW OFF kar raha hai kya ki you got a video also? :-)

Boycott and Sidhu together - \'they\'re a handful\'... haha what a lovely sum up.

A good interview this - I think you got Harsha to \'talk\'. He was as opinionated about the game, the system, the matter of life and death and everything and couldn\'t have expected anymore.

Good job this Soldier, however I do believe Harsha took a great part of the onus of making this \'Harsha\'-while. :-)) Keep up the good work.

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0 #9 Sri Kumar 2007-11-05 07:43

Hey the show was amazing. Really man hats off to you for not getting intimidated by him...i would have shitted bricks when he joked about doing everything in one take. I had never before realized that he had such a commanding voice. I mean I have always heard him when he is around with other biggies of cricket, but, this was simply superb. And what a humble fellow. I mean he spoke about everything like how much he used to get paid and how he played the second fiddle in his own smart way while commentating without showing bitterness.

His take on the Australian board and the BCCI was also excellent. He explained it with such simple reasoning. My favourite part was the way he described Sachin. The buildup was so nice. First he described Ganguly then Dravid and then kind of compared them and saved the best for the last..\"people like tendulkar are just born once\"Man i felt like hugging him.

I had once seen his interview in which he said he said that he hated pompous and pretentious people and after listening to this podcast I
truly believe that he really preaches what he believes.

You were amazing...There were a few grammatical mistakes (which I have never seen before, at least not from your side)but maaf hain..I am sure
that was because of nervousness. To simply hold your nerves in front of a personality like him was amazing.. And I noticed that you are working on not trying to sound impatient..You know what, I would really love to watch u guys talking to Alan Wilkins. I am a huge fan of his..and your (not very) long term goal should b to get Tendulkar on the show...Way to go!!!!!!!all the best!!!!!!reall y enjoyed it.

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0 #10 Abhishek 2007-11-05 07:45

@ Alok: I wanted to ask him that interview question, \"So, where do you see yourself 10 days/years down the line? But, we had over run our 20 minutes by a fair margin and that humble soul didn\'t complain a bit. I had a million questions, but, guess what, may be in another decade let\'s get him on again. btw, you get the contract if ever a book is written!

@ Rajiv: Thanks for taking the effort to post the transcript of the interesting bits on your blog.

@Sri Kumar: You are a true cricket fan and a Sahin fan! Also, about his buid up to describe Sachin after talking about Saurav and Dravid was simply amazing. Right ly pointed out! He is a story teller, isn\'t he? Also, your observation that he is a modest man is an understatement! Believe me.

@ Vaibhav: I think it has been almost eight years since we have met! Nice to see you here and thanks for your kind words!

@Vikram: Let\'s hope that the world Cup 2011 will ensure that our stadiums are given a face lift! Good luck with your stint in the US.

@Shub: Thanks a lot! And nek kaam mein deri kaisee? Go link this on your blog and your older bro\'s blog.. your chacha mama\'s blog.. Let all cricket lovers get to listen to the man they call, \'Harsha Bhogle\'!