Harsha Bhogle & Simon Doull banned by CAB from commentating at the Eden Gardens, Controversy in IPL
In what proves to be a shocking development, the Cricket Governing body of Bengal, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has reportedly refused to allow senior commentators Simon Doull of New Zealand & Harsha Bhogle of India from doing commentary at the iconic Eden Gardens in the remainder of Tata IPL 2025.
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According to the news report of RevSportz, the Bengal Cricket Association wrote to the BCCI, urging them to ban Doull and Bhogle from commentating at the iconic stadium based in Kolkata. This development came just ahead of KKR's forthcoming home match versus 2022 winners Gujarat Titans (GT) on Monday.
The move of the Bengal Cricket Association to preclude Simon & Harsha came after they scrutinised Sujan Mukherjee, the pitch curator of the CAB and Eden Gardens. Following the pitch row, Doull even recommended that KKR think about leaving Eden Gardens.
After losing to the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the opening match of the competition, the reigning champions KKR complained that they were not getting the wickets they wanted, which would have played to their strengths. This sparked the dispute.
The Ajinkya Rahane-led side have top-notch spinners like Sunil Narine & Varun Chakaravarthy in their squad but they are not able to benefit from the Eden Gardens surface as curator Sujan Mukherjee of Eden Gardens declined to follow the franchise's lead.
Simon Doull and Harsha Bhogle had scrutinised Sujan for resisting against the three-time winners and KKR is a franchise who even pays rental fees to the CAB for using the Kolkata-based stadium (Eden Gardens) as their home-ground for IPL matches.
The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) supported Sujan Mukherjee and wrote to the Cricket governing body of India, stating that he prepared the tracks in accordance to the rules mentioned in the rulebook, which affirms that no franchise is allowed to pressure the pitch curator to prepare the pitch according to their own terms and conditions.
On Monday, when KKR plays versus Gujarat, Bhogle and Doull will not be there to commentate. It will be intriguing to observe if or not the BCCI concurs with CAB. On the 25th of May, the Eden Gardens is also slated to play host to the Tata IPL 2025 final as well.