‘Colour discrimination’ – Why did a veteran cricket commentator resign after 23 years? BCCI silent on charges

Former India cricketer turned cricket commentator, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan quit as a commentator for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). In his retirement tweet, he also raised an important issue in his farewell post on X (formerly Twitter). 

The man who was never called for the toss

In a pair of raw, unfiltered posts on X, Sivaramakrishnan — one of Indian cricket’s most recognisable commentary voices — announced his retirement from BCCI commentary. But the farewell was far from gracious. The leg-break bowler made it pointedly clear that his exit was not entirely voluntary. He revealed he had been kept away from toss duties and presentation ceremonies for 23 of his 25 years in the box, even as newer, less experienced faces were handed those high-visibility roles routinely.

Most strikingly, he noted this sidelining continued even during the era when his old peer and fellow traveller, Ravi Shastri, was head coach of the Indian team — an implicit suggestion that proximity to power had no bearing on his marginalisation, or perhaps, that it made things worse.

“If I have not been used for tosses and presentations for 23 years and newcomers come in to do them — even when Shastri was coaching — what do you think could be the reason?” — Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, on X

The subtext is hard to miss. Being excluded from toss and presentation duties is no minor slight — these are the most visible, prime-time broadcast moments of any match, the face of Indian cricket to millions of viewers. That someone of his stature was deemed unsuitable for those moments raises uncomfortable questions about the criteria — and relationships — that govern such decisions inside the BCCI.

The Ravi Shastri connection

The two men go back further than most people remember. At fifteen, Sivaramakrishnan was the youngest member of the Under-19 India squad that toured Sri Lanka in 1980 — the same squad that Ravi Shastri led. They were contemporaries through India’s most glittering era in the mid-1980s, though Siva played a junior role in the spin pecking order behind Shivlal Yadav and Shastri himself.

Shastri went on to become a broadcasting institution and, later, India’s head coach from 2017 to 2021. Siva, meanwhile, built a steady if underappreciated commentary career — his first assignment came in November 2000, during Bangladesh’s inaugural Test against India, a role he reportedly secured on Shastri’s own recommendation. It is deeply ironic, then, that the very man who helped open the door for him in broadcasting is now name-checked in a retirement post about being shut out.

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan: Career Overview