SIGHT & SOUND
Shabby sports coverage
Amita Malik

Perhaps the best quote I have heard about Doordarshan’s coverage of sport was, aptly enough, in a programme called Cricket Controversies. This is always livened up with "Sherry" Sidhu in the chair and Sonali Chander’s deft anchoring. While speculating about which channel would cover the India-Pakistan cricket series, one participant said: "Not Doordarshan, then you will get only four balls per over. The other two will be eliminated by advertisements."

In fact, DD’s penchant for ruining any sports coverage with a variety of gaffes was also illustrated by its coverage of the Hyderabad Open tennis final, which was won by Sania Mirza. Quite literally, all the first services were blacked out by advertisements. Let alone cutting out vital commentaries in between games and overs, DD now even blacks out portions of the actual play in its greed for advertisements combined with its total lack of professional understanding of different sports. DD’s Sports channel is a farce in itself, showing outdated events, including the Athens Olympics, also games of no particular interest to India.

The best suggestion which is being seriously considered for coverage of the India-Pakistan cricket series is that it should be produced by a good professional sports channel, such as Star Sports or ESPN, and carried only physically and technically by DD. This way the ordinary viewer, who cannot afford cable, will get it terrestrially. And, everyone will get quality coverage of the actual matches in terms of visuals as well as comments. We shall hopefully be also spared those B team commentators thrust on us by DD as well as the woman in noodle straps for the male voyeurs.

A stop must be put to DD waiting in the wings to get drop-out benefits when better channels run into hurdles. And one person who can surely take up the quality of sports telecasts by DD is the Minister for Sports, the more viewer-conscious Sunil Dutt, since DD’s CEO, DG and the I and B Ministry seem to be uncaring and unaware of viewers’ resentment with DD’s shabby coverage of sports.

I have been watching with great pleasure the Tsunami concerts mounted by our film industry and carried by most channels over the weekend. Everyone from Shah Rukh Khan to the Big B and Little B chimed in. As I watched this late show into the early hours, I realised all over again that, in addition to our two great schools of classical music, it is filmi geet, which is so universally popular.

With its catchy qualities, versatility and its high quality of professionalism, from orchestration to our fabulous percussion players, to composers like A.R. Rahman and lyricists like Javed Akhtar, filmi geet has become our very own pop. Its popularity is worldwide. For instance, take this Japanese listener who asked AIR to put on filmi geet at a particular time because he could not go to sleep without it; and there was this listener in Latin America who caught a freak reception of Indian music from a little station like Shillong. Everyone loves filmi geet, from Russia to China and all over West Asia and South Asia. Filmi geet, together with the saree, has been one of our best ambassadors abroad.

So when I watch our girl anchors strutting about in men’s style suits with high-neck collars and looking thoroughly uncomfortable in them (and what is the relevance of suits and pants with filmi geet), I keep on asking: Whatever happened to the saree? Give it a thought, girls.