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A senior BBC journalist has resigned over plans to move him to Manchester.
The BBC announced today that its sports news editor Mihir Bose, 64, had left the corporation because of "personal reasons" amid rumours his elderly mother in India was unwell.
But according to sources at the broadcaster, the journalist was unhappy about plans to move his role to the new Media City in Salford Quays in 2011.
A source said: "Mihir had grown deeply unhappy about the move and felt betrayed. He was given assurances when he joined that he would be able to stay in London.
"His wife runs a very successful consultancy and the vast majority of his contacts are based in London so he couldn't see the sense in the move."
It is thought Barbara Slater, who was appointed head of sport in February, had said it was important Bose be based in Salford Quays with the majority of his BBC sport colleagues.
Bose was set to travel to Mumbai this week - the city in which he was born and raised - to stay with family, including his mother who is in her nineties. There was no answer at his home in Shepherd's Bush last night.
The source added: "There are personal reasons, but the BBC will give compassionate leave. It is unusual for a member of staff to resign altogether for personal reasons."
Bose's appointment to the BBC in April 2007 was mired in controversy. It came after a series of job cuts and triggered an angry letter from the National Union of Journalists.
His style of presenting has not been to everyone's taste. Viewers regularly complained on message boards about his "haughty" delivery. His regular analysing of the finances of football clubs such as Arsenal and Liverpool triggered a backlash from fans too.
However his supporters say he bolstered BBC sport's investigative credentials and Bose was credited with warning the England Cricket Board about doing business with alleged fraudster Sir Allen Stanford in reports last year.
The source said: "Mihir was brought in to bring exclusives and that he did. He has great contacts. But there were questions about him as a broadcaster.
"He was rather seen as a Marmite broadcaster. You either love him or hate him. His recent interview with Florentino Perez is a perfect example. The fact he got the first sit down interview with the Real Madrid president since he returned to the club was a coup - but most people were unimpressed with the depth of probing in the interview."
It was revealed this week that Bose was among a number of BBC employees who had undertaken a training course in presenting skills with a company run by Ian Blandford - the husband of BBC1 controller Jay Hunt.
Bose lives with his wife, Caroline Cecil, who runs a financial PR consultancy. He has a daughter, Indira.
He joined the BBC after more than a decade at the Daily Telegraph. He left Mumbai in 1969 to come to England.
Reader views (28)
Mihir Bose is a brilliant commentator. Someone with real style, more distinctive than any of the bland nobodies usually allocated to sport.
- Claudette Sands, London UK, 10/08/2009 09:08
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Nobody mentions basic fact of delivery aka His Voice. It was the most awful sound on TV. It grated on my ears...I stopped listening to him a long time ago. TV is a visual but also an audio media. I have no objection to any accent or sound as long as it easy on the ear (I don't have to strain to understand).
- P Martin, Seaford. E.Sussex, 09/08/2009 15:22
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thank God he's gone. That's put a smile on my face. He was awful - knew very little about sport. i totally agree with the comments that his appointment just about sums up where BBC Sport has gone since its heyday in the 70s and 80s. Absolutely terrible appointment - don't know anyone who rated him.
- James, shepperton england, 06/08/2009 22:10
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Awful awful blogs on the BBC - his disgraceful effort on Team GB was flawed, inaccurate, lazy, and ignorant of all the pertinent issues.
Appallingly sanctimonious, blinkered sports journalist who trotted out lazy generalities. He really was just someone who knew a bit about cricket but not enough to impress, and knew little about anything else who sums up everything that is below-par about the BBC's Sports delivery at the moment.
He wasn't like Marmite - imagine a variety of Marmite that is flavoured with old teabags, mouldy bread & rust; i.e., tastes of rubbish. That's him.
- Chris Norton, Nottingham, 06/08/2009 19:19
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Apt that Bose should feel 'betrayed'. Most of us hapless viewers felt something akin to that when he was reporting on the Olympics, cricket and some sporting events. He did seem to struggle with an anti British bias more than somewhat, on more than one occasion.
- James, Cambridge, 06/08/2009 17:25
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Bose comes across as a man with a soured disposition. His team GB coverage in China last year inexplicably seemed to slant almost to umbrage towards the UK. He has always been a strange choice for the BBC.
- V J S, London, 06/08/2009 10:14
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His awful presentation style could have been forgiven if his analysis was good - it wasn't. He won't be missed.
- Rob, Liverpool, 06/08/2009 09:58
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His small minded comments over the "team GB" debacle will not be forgotten and tarnish his reputation as a fair minded sports journalist
- Euan, London, 06/08/2009 00:51
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Thank god he's leaving i have never heard such drivel from a supposed ''sports correspondent'' This is the man who claimed Arsenal could not afford to build their new stadium... whats that i see at Ashburton grove then?
Bose the Tottenham supporting cretin will nto be missed.
- James, London, 05/08/2009 17:59
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A completely pointless employee and tv tax parasite. Lets hope the Tories take a hatchet to the British Bureaucracy Con.
- Danny, NW5, 05/08/2009 16:26
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He'll be just the first of many to jump ship before 2011.
Any selfishly shabby excuse.
If he really was any good, then Sky would employ him.
Don't hold your breath.
- Dave, Cumbria, 05/08/2009 15:48
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With so many talented and enthusiastic sports reporters I always wondered why Bose was top dog. He was diabolical and won't be missed.
- Sports Fan, Cambridge, 05/08/2009 15:17
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Give his job to David Conn. He is not only a journalist who has his own ideas and writes well but I believe he lives in Glossop so it would make a nice little commute to Salford.
Bose only stated the bleedin' obvious in a painful, hectoring fashion. He didn't seem to be interested in sport and his investigative skills were Watson rather than Holmes. Although he fitted in quite nicely on the BBC's ultra-stupid Five Live.
- Bart, London UK, 05/08/2009 15:12
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Aged 64, wasn't he too close to retirement age to make the move up north anyway? Or is the BBC like Parliament - a place where you can go on and on doing less and less till you finally fade away?
- Martyn L, kingston., 05/08/2009 14:53
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Good riddance, a grossly over-rated individual. He is more suited to reporting about accounting standards.
- Darren, london, 05/08/2009 14:20
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Good Riddance, awful editor and a Sp*rs fan to boot. Should of been booted out years ago. Up the Arsenal
- Harry Munk, London., 05/08/2009 14:15
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We all have to understand that London is not the centre of the Universe and that there is life beyond the Watford Gap. Manchester isn't that bad, really, once you get to know it. Relocation, Relocation, Relocation. Perhaps he Gaurdian will consider returning to Manchester and recover someof its prestige. Mihir style was getting a bit dated, rather like Trevor MacDonald and Moira Stewart. There is a new breed of BAME Young Turks coming forward and I hope a lot of them end up with top jobs in the Beeb.
- Dhan Raj, Basildon, 05/08/2009 13:56
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Oh dear! More money for the licence payer to cough up. I smell a court case for constructive dismissal and discrimination.
- Roy G, Solihull, England, 05/08/2009 13:34
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Fantastic news - this guy was expensive and appallingly bad at his job. And for the record, he drooled over his meeting with Stanford rather than warned the ECB!
- St, London, 05/08/2009 13:27
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Best news, from his October 2008 blog:Now, Sir Allen did not know my name, and what is more the name Mihir is not one he is familiar with.
But when we met, he took off his dark glasses and asked me several times what my name was and how I pronounced it. And throughout the interview he took great pains to use it to emphasise his point.
Of course, this does not make him a Blair, a Clinton or a Mandela or anything remotely like that.
But I give this example as an indication of the sort of man he is and how he seeks to reach out to people.
Just to see him as just yet another rich man who wants a toy to play with may well be a mistake.
Now, you could say he has not been very good at reaching out to people.
There can be little doubt he has caused a bit of a stir among England players in the way he frolicked with their wives and girlfriends.
There can be little doubt that he has been taken aback by the media it has generated, particularly in England.
But his explanation of that was he did not even know who they were. It was all a bit of fun, he said, and he had not even heard of the expression "WAGs" until after the incident had blown up.
For him it was all part of some innocent fun and his take on how to play cricket - a mixture of West Indian experience and the Stanford style.
OH DEAR!!
- N Clark, London, Engand, 05/08/2009 12:58
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Fantastic news, he is the most awful sports editor ever listened to, no passion, no delivery and no idea!
- Steve Beaumont, Sheffield, 05/08/2009 12:10
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Don't blame him. Why would anyone want to move to Manchester?
- Nolan, Londonist, 05/08/2009 12:01
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Paging Alan Partridge! There is a new opening for you at the BBC.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, 05/08/2009 12:00
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"...and Bose was credited with warning the England Cricket Board about doing business with alleged fraudster Sir Allen Stanford in reports last year."
Are you sure? He actually compared Stanford to Nelson Mandela in a classic piece of Bose-journalism! Mihir would never let a good story get in the way of cuddling up to the 'great and the good' and wallowing in the laps of luxury.
- L Veil, London, 05/08/2009 11:45
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How did he get the job in the first place?
- Stephend, London, England, 05/08/2009 11:26
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He could always apply to become Speaker in the House of Commons next year as everyone knows Bose make excellent Speakers.
- Adam, Harrow, UK, 05/08/2009 10:58
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Stop moaning people have to relocate who work for private companies.
This is in the "real world" not the parasitic public funded world that you work in.
- P Staker, London, 05/08/2009 10:43
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Good riddance, Bose was a rubbish sports editor. I imagine there will be no shortage of excellent applicants.
- F Prefect, London, 05/08/2009 10:34
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