The commentary adds a lot of flavour to the game of cricket, but it’s not always in good taste. Here are some examples of cricketers crossing the line while speaking on the mic and leaving everyone embarrassed and angry. 

1. When Dinesh Karthik compared bats to “neighbours wife” and said, “Batsmen and not liking bats, they go hand in hand. Most of the batters don’t seem to like their bats. They either like another person’s bat. Bats are like a neighbour’s wife. They always feel better”.

@DineshKarthik Love your commentary and insights, but “batsmen prefer others’ bats, its like neighbours’ wives, they always feel better” was not cool at all.

— Avi Seth (@UnSethled) July 1, 2021

He apologised for his statement later.

I want to apologise for what happened last game. It’s not really what I intended. I just got it all wrong. I apologise to everybody. It’s definitely not the right thing to say. I am really sorry that it shouldn’t happen again. I got a lot of stick from my wife and my mum for saying that.

2. When Sunil Gavaskar dragged Anushka into the conversation about Virat’s batting and noted, “Ab jo lockdown tha, to sirf Anushka ki bowling ki practice ki unhone, who dikha video main, us se to kuch nahi ban na hai”.

Later, Anushka responded to his comment with an Instagram story.

3. When Dean Jones made a disturbing remark on Hashim Amla and said, “The terrorist has got another wicket”, during South Africa’s Test match against Sri Lanka.

He was rightfully sacked from the job as a result of this.

4. When Nasser Hussain compared Indian fielders to “donkeys” during one of India’s matches against England.

India have three or four very good fielders and one or two donkeys in the field still.

5. When Andrew Strauss called Kevin Pietersen a “complete c***”, thinking he was off-air. He, in fact, was very much on-air and was heard cussing Pietersen very clearly.

Strauss apologised for his mistake later. 

6. When Shane Warne referred to Cheteshwar Pujara as “Steve” and it was alleged that the name was given to any person of colour who played for Yorkshire.

The claim was made by a person working for Yorkshire and it was rightly observed that Shane must have been aware about the racist angle of the whole thing.

7. When a commentator named Rajender Amarnath made a controversial statement during a match between Karnataka and Baroda, saying that every Indian must know Hindi.

Every Indian must know Hindi. This is our mother tongue. There is no bigger language than this.

To which his fellow commentator Sushil Doshi added: 

In fact, I look at those people with a lot of anger who say that we are cricketers still we speak in Hindi. You are from India, then of course you speak its mother tongue, that is nothing to be proud of.

So much for being the masters of words.