The 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to begin today, March 31. Fans are excited to witness their favourite players from all around the world in arguably the world’s biggest T20 tournament. This IPL is even more special as apart from the usual English, and Hindi commentary, the 2023 edition will witness Bhojpuri commentary also. Yes, you read that right, especially folks from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh will get a homely feeling since they will be listening to their vernacular language (Bhojpuri).
Till last year, the IPL was available only in six languages including Hindi, English, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and Tamil.
ABP Live spoke to one of the commentators from the IPL Bhojpuri panel.
Shivam Singh is an active cricketer who will be commentating in the Bhojpuri language for all the cricket matches of IPL 2023 starting March 31. He is a current first-class cricketer representing Bihar.
“The day I got selected for the commentary panel, I was so elated. I am now excited to share the stage with legendary cricketers like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, and all. It’s like a dream come true moment for me,” Shivam Singh told ABP Live.
Talking about how he got this opportunity in the commentating Shivam told ABP Live, “All of this started when I got a call from Mr Ankit Behl, who is the sports broadcast talent manager for Viacom 18. He wanted to interview me like the screen test and all. I then qualified for the interview and screening Test and signed the contract. I am in Mumbai now and today was our first rehearsal day. I met international cricketers like Kedar Jadhav and Venkatesh Prasad.”
Shivam has been playing cricket ever since he was in standard 10th. He loved the game so much that he even continued his passion when he got into engineering.
“I have always been a cricket geek. I have been playing this game since my school and college days. I continued that passion during my engineering days too. But I still remember the first time I held the bat, it was during my 10th standard. I joined DLW Academy in Banaras and started my training,’’ Singh said.
Shivam, hailing from the Kaimur district in Bihar, has a family of scholars. His brother and two sisters are doctors. Since his family has a history of pursuing academics, Shivam also finished his engineering degree.
“I was raised in Banaras and that was the place I started my cricketing journey from. Then I went to Allahabad to attend college. The moment Bihar got affiliation from BCCI, I returned to my home town and started playing district cricket and soon I got a place in Bihar side,” cricketer-turned-commentator confided.
His cricketing journey was not so easy as after being selected for the Vijay Hazare Tournament, he warmed the bench for the entire season. But as they say, good things take time. Soon he made his first-class debut for Bihar.
It is to be noted that this time the Bihar state Ranji cricket has been able to join the elite group of Ranji Trophy after 47 years due to the excellent performance by Shivam Singh. He scored a century while playing a brilliant 110 against Mizoram in the knockout round of Elite Group played in Ranji Trophy.
“Last year I got a chance to play Ranji Trophy for Bihar. And I delivered when my team needed me the most. Bihar was not supposed to lose this match, it was a pathetic situation for us. That’s where I stood for my team and I ended up getting a century against Mizoram and saved the game for my team,” Singh told ABP Live.