Continued…

Many people believe that media attention and commercial interest on cricket has adversely affected other sports in India. Cricket is religion in India and is followed with keen interest everywhere in India. With so much following and with so much interest how can media ignore it. In the pre world cup victory days there was not so much interest and following of cricket in India but after the word cup triumph everything changed, cricket gained in popularity and the performance of Indian Cricket team was followed by keen interest so it was perfectly justified for media to cover thoroughly.

With advent of electronic media and with presence of so many sports and news channel the time space given to cricket increased. We cannot blame media for covering so much of cricket as people in India generally liked it. If people in India had followed even 50% of any other sports like they follow cricket, media would have covered that too.

Some sports federation in India complain that their sport is not adequately covered or not many business houses come up to help them, that may have some justification but then again fault lies with other sports federation. They have not shown positive results which would have made people interested in that sport and as such with lack of interest shown by the people media also fails to cover it adequately.

In this liberalized world more people in India follow EPL then Indian football. People today can easily differentiate between the standard of football in India with that of other countries as people can watch live coverage of these would class games than why they should be interested in seeing the sub-standard Indian football. Electronic media is showing both these games but most people want to see the foreign league so why blame media.

People interest in cricket is derived from its good standing in world cricket. If India would not perform so well internationally then people would have lost some interest in it and so much of media would not have covered it so much. Today media rights (television) for cricket are sold for millions of dollars due to its popularity but TV rights for most other sports have no takers in India.

Media can play some limited part in popularizing a particular sport but the onus popularizing a sport lies mainly with the body that governs the sport so how can one blame media and commercial houses.

blogathonindia , blogathonindia1

28th December 2007 started off lil differently at our office. We were having our Annual Sports. I know Annual Sports of a company sounds a bit weird, but we have this every year somewhere in last week of December.

We started it at dot 4.45 with housie and as usual my luck did not favor me. I actually don’t remember when the last time I won something in housie.

After that started the main events and TT being the biggest of them all. Almost everybody participated in this (except the gals). First round results came out as expected but Quarter Finals saw some exciting matches and 2 major upsets. Amit and Arindam Da won against Aji and Vivek Sir (Both among the best TT players at our office) respectively. I played against Debasish Da and won quite easily (taking nothing away from deba da, he played well).

In semi finals I met Amit, his confidence was on a high, and after all he has reached this round after a convincing performance against Aji in quarters. I had some early hiccups but was soon in control and reached finals.

As expected the Finals was between Prashanta and me. Frankly I was nervous in the start and loosing first 3 consecutive points in game 1 did not help me. I had to quickly think something fast after all it was the finals. It was then that I changed my strategy and played defensive game (against my character). And won that game 21-16. I continued with the tactics in the second game also, I had won the finals in straight sets. Ah! I had won a TT tournament first time in my life. I remember reaching the finals a couple of time in my school days. But the feeling after the win was different and very special.

Honestly speaking Prashanta is a very good TT player and I have lost TT games against him many times. Winning against him made it even more special.

Here’s the video of the final match.

Yes thats exactly what happened. You dont believe me, check this out yourself

ICC 20 20 World Cup is going great, it’s full of excitement and spectators all around are loving even if there team are not playing.

But have you noticed few men and women dressed fluorescent green T-shirts and black trousers. They are the one who attend the guests in hospitality boxes, help the media, protect cheer leaders, escort disabled to the toilets and even call a taxi for an excessively drunk spectator.

Whether there is a match at that venue or not…they are there for almost 12 hours a day. You Bet? This is hard work. And would you believe it, they do it absolutely free. And hey, it is not something they complain.

Caroline Murray a nurse says “Oh it’s tough juggling volunteering at cricket and nursing. I do early morning shifts at the hospital, where I look after the ICCU, and then I’m here at the ground by 10 if it’s a 2 pm match. I normally finish my work around 11 in the night, and then it’s another hour or so before I get home. Yes, I don’t get paid for this but let me tell you, I love every moment of it.”

So now you may feel are these people are crazy, slogging away for free? “No” says Diane, one of them. “For us, it’s like community service. All of us have a great time helping and reaching out to people from different backgrounds. Apart from our common love for the sport, this is something a lot of us do for our soul.”

These guys have to go through rigorous training schedules with activities like working in a team, basic communication that will help them reach out to the people.

They make sure each and every spectator leaving the ground leaves with a smile on his face.

“You know what my biggest reward is? When I am strolling in a mall with my friends months after the event, and someone who I don’t know, comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, you did a great job at the cricket’. Man, my day is made. ” Says Mathew White, another one of them.

We salute you all Men and Women in green

Huh!! Yet another milestone for the little champion, crossing 15000 run mark in ODI. And to be realistic still many established players can just dream of reaching such milestones. I am sure many will agree on this that nothing united our country more than Sachin’s batting in it’s prime.

Last match was special because after a long time we saw our little champion bat like a true champion.

But what was more remarkable in that innings we saw our hero play the way is best at ATTACK!!

It all started with a pull of Makhya Ntini’s short ball and after that every time someone banged short the ball had to be fetched form the boundary. The vintage innings included some of the shorts that the little master is a expert at. Short Arm Jab over the infiled, cover drive, Pull and Hooks and last but not the least his flick pads. Auh!! It had all.

I just wish Sachin plays the way he did in this match for the rest of his career, because he at his best when he is attacking.