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Saturday, January 21, 2006 |
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Saturday, January 21, 2006 |
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SIGHT & SOUND
There was even a prolonged debate on the subject of the media response to the mysterious visual, and serious issues were raised in Sonali Chander’s lively Cricket Controversies, with Navjot Singh Sidhu shouting down everyone and the producer-commentator of Ten Sports, Dean Jones, quietly and smilingly facing Sidhu’s onslaught. Media experts, the audience, Joy Bhattacharjee of ESPN and pretty much everyone chipped in about the ethics of media reporting when it came to cricket in particular. But in spite of it all, no one had the answer to what exactly Sourav, the argumentative Bengali, was saying. It was given out non-officially that he was, contrary to popular speculation, actually begging to be allowed to open the innings and telling Dravid that he should not spare him by going in instead.
But there was one channel which claimed it knew exactly what was being said. Now even amateurs like me know that there is a microphone near the wicket and, of course, hidden cameras are impossible on the field unless Sourav, Rahul and Greg had one up their sleeve. But in what could clearly have only been a sting operation, Star News claimed proudly on Sunday night that it knew that darpoke (coward) Sourav had refused to bat first when asked to, and that bahadur (brave) Dravid told Sourav that in that case he would go in first, since “Sourav had refused”. A wonderful sting operation but it raises the good old question of media ethics and claiming speculation to be truth. After all, only Sourav, Dravid and Greg know the truth and they were not talking, not even to Star News. Karan Thapar is now on to his nth interview programme and there is no doubt that his two-part interview with President Pervez Musharraf in the programme Devil’s Advocate on the CNN-IBN channel, with whom he has had several encounters, was an apt curtain-raiser. I have earlier also mentioned Karan’s plus points: formidable advance research, collection of quotes from the interviewee, bull dog qualities and genuine anxiety to get at the truth. But he was clearly out of his depth with Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. For one thing, Chidambaram is the most photogenic, articulate, sophisticated and confident performer on TV out of all our politicians, and he was more than a match for Thapar. He often patiently corrected Thapar on facts, and explained economic terms which Thapar was using without really knowing their subtle meanings. Chidambaram, while only occasionally showing exasperation, showed more patience in explaining things with meticulous detail, and at times even smiled in amusement. This was one of those rare occasions when Thapar had clearly bitten off more than he could chew and all his doggedness failed him in the end. I stick to my assessment that Chidambaram easily tops the list of politicians on TV and I am sure that Thapar, who has obvious sporting qualities, would be the first to concede defeat. One must congratulate Ten Sports for the best line-up of commentators one has had for a long time on cricket. Gone are the noodle straps, the sports jockeys addressing Kapil Dev in a yaar-dost manner and chatterboxes like Charu Sharma. With Sanjay Manjrekar as anchor, and Imran Khan and Nasser Hussein as analysts and a whole line-up of distinguished former top cricketers as commentators, one could hardly ask for more. Lucky that Doordarshan didn’t get in by the back door and take advantage of its sarkari clout. Tailpiece: It was quite remarkable that on the day of Sehwag’s spectacular innings at Lahore, the Quattrocchi story also broke with all its political implications. But, mercifully, both stories were given equal treatment. Full marks to NDTV’s Noopur Tiwari who dogged Quattrocchi’s footsteps in Italy until he agreed to speak to Nidhi Razdan, who handled tricky questions deftly, at the Delhi studio end. But what struck me was that other channels, including CNN-IBN, quoted extensively from NDTV’s interview, but none of them accorded NDTV the professional courtesy of naming it as the source. |
While the rest of India reeled under Bofors, phone-tapping, the Mumbai marathon and sundry crises, for the world of cricket and cricket lovers there was only one burning question: What was Ganguly saying in such an animated fashion to Dravid while the inscrutable Greg Chappell looked on? There was more speculation on this than on any other topic that day, with each channel trying to get in first.
