Mumbai, Aug. 18: Cricket took centre-stage at the release of Harsha Bhogle’s book, Out of the Box, with the first copy being presented to master blaster Sachin Tendulkar here on Tuesday.

Said Tendulkar, "It is quite easy to speak about Harsha as we are associated with the game for almost 25 years now. But he is always inside the box and the book is titled Out of the Box. I feel that he has opened the doors for people to take up a career as a commentator."

Later, the celebrities present — Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League, Sanjay Manjrekar and Rajdeep Sardesai — had an elaborate discussion on ‘Cricket in Changing Times’.

Asked why he was being portrayed as a ‘villain’, Modi said he had been taken wrongly. "I think that you have got it wrong. Cricket was dying and declining and tennis, soccer and F1 were beginning to enter our drawing rooms. We had to increase viewership and that is how Twenty20 came along. We marketed it well and it caught the imagination of many. I think that to get people back to the stadiums, Tests cricket should be played on a day-and-night-format," he said.

Bhogle, for his part felt that T20 was not running down Test cricket, but it was creating a new skill set for cricketers.

Former cricketer and commentator Manjrekar was of the view that T20 provided a kind of excellence he was in awe of. He also supported Shane Warne’s theory that the 50-over format was the real culprit as it had become boring to watch.

"At the moment nobody knows where the game is heading. I think we should try and make the ODI a 40-over affair before we scrap it," Manjrekar said.