Akshay Khanna’s ‘dhurandhar’ connection with the voice of cricket on All India Radio

By Samira Vishwas On Dec 25, 2025

An almost unknown or rather unknown fact about Akshay Khanna is that he has a very deep connection with cricket. He is the grandson (daughter’s son) of India’s most distinguished and world famous cricket commentator AFS Talyarkhan (also known as AFST or Bobby Talyarkhan). The current generation of cricket lovers may not have even heard the name of Bobby Talyarkhan, but the truth is that he has a special place in the history of cricket broadcast in India and many people believe that Bobby Talyarkhan was the ‘voice of cricket on All India Radio’.

First, let’s talk about the relationship: Akshaye Khanna is related to the Talyarkhan family through his mother, Geetanjali (Vinod Khanna’s first wife) and Ardeshir Furdorji Sohrabji ‘Bobby’ Talyarkhan was his maternal grandfather. He was a Parsi. This was in the late 1960s. When Vinod Khanna joined his college theater group, he met Geetanjali Talyarkhan and soon fell in love. Geetanjali was a model and belonged to a family of lawyers and businessmen. After the divorce of Vinod Khanna and Geetanjali, Akshay and his brother were raised by Geetanjali.

AFST was a radio commentator and one of the first to popularize cricket commentary in India. He is often called India’s first radio cricket commentator. Born in 1897, Bobby Talyarkhan started doing cricket commentary for AIR in 1934 on a match in the Quadrangular Tournament between Parsis and Muslims at the famous Esplanade ground in Mumbai. After that, for the next few decades, his name became associated with radio commentary and he also started writing sharp language and articles on cricket that brought out new things. His column on sports, ‘Take it from Me’ (later renamed ‘Knock Out’) in the Mumbai-based tabloid Blitz, was one of the most read columns of any newspaper in India for its sharp commentary and demystifying style of articles. His photo with beard and pipe was always published with the column.

A unique thing is that despite being a radio commentator (he does not get a chance to stop even for a moment in between commentaries), he could do commentary for the whole day without stopping. Ram Guha writes in his book ‘A Corner of a Foreign Field’, ‘He had amazing control over himself because he used to speak without stopping (except lunch and tea intervals).’ He used to be alone in the commentary box and never commented with others. In other words, he didn’t like sharing the microphone and would commentate alone all day long.

In 1948–49, the West Indies toured India and to cover that Test series, AIR formed a 3-member commentator panel. Bobby Talyarkhan did not like this and when his request to comment alone was not accepted, he retired and said goodbye to the commentary box forever. Even then, when he was specially called during India’s first tour of Pakistan in 1954-55, he returned to the box. After this, in 1972-73, when the England team was on India tour, he was the presenter of the whole day’s play after the end of the day’s play in the Test.

He used to describe the action happening on the ground so well that the listeners felt as if they themselves were watching the match inside the stadium. In those days, hockey was the most popular game in India and the Indian hockey team was considered the best team in the world. On the other hand, India’s record in cricket was not so good. Even then, Bobby Talyarkhan’s cricket commentary attracted people towards cricket.

He had his own unique style of commentary. For example, whenever a famous batsman scored his first run, Bobby Talyarkhan used to say, ‘Now only 99 more runs have to be scored for the century.’ Harsha Bhogle says, ‘I think that perhaps the stories of his commentary that I heard from my father aroused in me the desire to become a commentator.’

Bobby Talyarkhan was well aware of his unique style of writing and people liked him very much. Harsha Bhogle tells a story from the same period. Harsha was then associated with Sportsworld (a weekly published from Kolkata) and once, ‘When we asked him to write a column for Sportsworld, he immediately agreed and asked for only Rs 400 as payment, although he could have given them a much bigger amount.’ There was such excitement for the opportunity to write. He continued to write a column on cricket, racing, hockey, football and boxing for the Mumbai tabloid Mid-Day until his death on July 13, 1990. He used to end every column by writing the line ‘Steve, are you understanding what I am saying?’

Had an amazing personality. Used to drive a red colored sports model MG car. Once Murphy was also seen in a radio ad. People who have seen him commentating say that he could do commentary alone for all 5 days of a Test match. There was a bottle of whiskey kept on the table; He would take a few sips and start the commentary and would do so non-stop for 5 days (except for lunch and tea breaks) because he did not like sharing the mic. He preferred to do commentary alone. Apart from cricket, he also commentated on hockey and football.