The Australian broadcaster Channel Seven has decided not to give a contract extension to the former Australian opening Michael Slater, who had been working with the network as a cricket commentator for the last few years. Slater had created a bit of controversy earlier this year when he had accused the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of having “blood on his hands”.
Michael Slater was actually in India in March-April this year when India went through a massive second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and suffered a number of casualties. Slater was commentating in the Indian Premier League at that point of time, and he decided to leave the tournament midway through to return home.
But, because of the policies of the Australian government which didn’t allow people to travel from India to Australia without quarantining in a third country, Slater had to wait for quite a while before he could get on the flight to Australia, and he was not happy about it at all.
Michael Slater has been in controversies before
However, this was not the first time that Slater was in the news for the wrong reasons. A couple of years back, he was asked to make his way out of a flight after he had argued with a couple of ladies on the flight. He then subsequently hadn’t continued his commentating duties in the Big Bash League that year and had pulled out.
Channel Seven has, however, denied that the network’s decision to not extend Slater’s contract has anything to do with the controversies he has been involved in. According to Lewis Martin, who is heading the sports broadcasting at Channel Seven, the company made the decision for financial management reasons and nothing else.
Slater is currently not even commentating in the second leg of the IPL which is taking place in the UAE, and he is unlikely to be seen behind the microphone in the T20 World Cup either. It remains uncertain when he will be back in commentary again.
