I always wanted to write something about this topic ever since 2003 world cup in SA, but either did not time or was disinclined. But today on a holiday, I have decided to pen down something on this topic.
If you had been seen the cricket coverage of 2006 champions trophy, then please do read ahead otherwise its your call. Since 2003 when Sony Max decided to mix masala with cricket by putting Mandira Bedi sitting alongside the cricket legends and some cricket motor-mouths(like krish. S), analyzing and preview/reviews of cricket matches have been reduced to a farce. If that was bad, in 2006 we have this guy called Rohit Roy thrown in and who argues with ex-players(who have 6000+ test runs under their belts) on how the dew factor would affect the moisture content in the good-length area of the pitch.
C’mmon u f*****, get a life…Then we have these celebrities thrown in which just distract the knowledgeable and avid cricket lover…If you want to see movie-stars, then a cricket match is not the time or place, stick to the big screen guys…All of them starting to dicuss about hindi movies in hindi, are nothing but sort of insulting the ex-cricket legends sitting in the studio for whom hindi might be a alien language…If that was not enough, then there is that empty rhetoric and chest-beating of how the Indian cricket team is gonna wipe out the Ozzies…Freak…These new anchors then start defending their favourite Indian cricketers(another thing that they have not performed for a long time)….
Then there is this blue-billion thing..ooh aah India… they r showing this ad even after India exited the trophy :-))…
All these above is an insult to the 100crore+ Indians…for whom cricket is not just a game of sport you watch and forget…cricket has been their religion..right from the days they use to play with a rubber ball and a cricket bat indigenously carved out of a wooden-stick…They still look upto cricket to provide them succour from their daily lives..when team India wins they are happy and when the same team loses, they are sad…
So SONY Max guys, if you cannot bring Harsha Bhogle or Sunny Gavaskar, please also spare us from Rohit Roy/Srikanth kind of folks who all come with a myopic view and lcak knowledge of the cricketing basics or thinking….Maybe they came also spare us from the celebs and concentrate solely on cricket and instead of searching for the blue-billion indian and asking him to dance/sing, focus more on what is going wrong with Indian cricket and the remedy for it…
Make no mistake friends, Indian cricket is dying…and it needs to be saved…We Indians are not world champions in any sport nor can we hope to be for another generation..but cricket we have the potential to be…Lets save Indian cricket…
As someone famously put it..
“The only good is knowledge, the only evil is ignorance..”
PS:- I dont mind Mandira in thos lovely dresses that she comes…;-) and her cricketing common sense has also gone up several notches…
