Cricket on Doordarshan? ...Oh no :-(

I am writing this post while the last match of the one day international series between India and South Africa is going on. India is batting; chasing a pretty low total and the match is at a crucial stage. Sachin Tendulkar has just been dismissed by a stunning catch, and the chances of the match being a cracker have just increased. And yet I am sitting in front of my computer writing a blog post (after a very long time). A Cricket aficionado would call me a complete hopeless case in the cause of popularizing cricket.
But no; that'’s not why I am not watching the game; I do follow at least the Indian team with a decent amount of enthusiasm and concern. The reason is the hopeless television coverage by Doordarshan. Well it is politically correct for doordarshan to be given television rights for covering a series featuring India, so that people in India who don't have cable TV can see it, but that does not mean that they have the right to subject the viewer to such a poor sports show. And I am not talking about the game itself; the quality of cricket has been high; it'’s the general quality and entertainment value of the show that I am talking about. Firstly, there are too many commercial breaks during the match. End of over… Before even the fielder has thrown the ball to the keeper, there is a commercial break taken; and it happens after every damn over. The whole continuity of the show is lost. There is so much happening on the field between overs; fielders move about to change ends, the umpire gives a warning to the bowler for running on the pitch, there could be a very interesting exchange of words between the bowler and the batsmen; friendly or otherwise, someone in the stands could be doing something funny, there could be an interesting cricket statistic to be shown, or the commentators could just be discussing some interesting incident from their cricketing lives. We just miss all of it; lose out big time on the whole built up atmosphere in the stadium, the essence of the game, the thing that gives the show some entertainment value. There is just no point to it. All we get to see are six deliveries of an over...over and over again. Well you do get to see some really interesting ads repeated a lot of times for drilling their stuff into your heads… Like the moisturiser cream ad where the focus of the shot is not on the cracked up feet of the guy...but on Kareena's cleavage. Well you get too see so much of those bloody ads that many times I take time to fall asleep because the stupid advertisement music is running in my head. Well I don'’t want to go on an on about the whole ads issue, but really it does suck. Just as a comparison, if we take ESPN-Star Sports'’ coverage of cricket as an example; it is so much better just because they do not take breaks after every over. There are many instances where the game is shown seamlessly for a period of two to three overs at a stretch. That and the discussion sessions with the expert panel, between, before and after the two innings, makes the star sports show so much more enjoyable...and also keeps semi-enthusiast of cricket riveted to his seat.
Well, the issue of the panel of ex-cricketers giving their intelligent insights on the game, and the value that they add to the television cricket coverage, is so juicy that it deserves a blog post of its own. To just delve a little into how doordarshan so totally sucks at that too, just give a little more attention to the hand gestures that Kris Shreekanth makes while talking; they are hilarious. He does this batting action with his hand while talking about a batsman and a bowling action in case of a bowler, and he even changes the hand he uses for left handers! Now that is so ridiculous, and the pain on the viewers part is aggravated by the fact that he is speaking utterly useless stuff. Any kid who has just seen cricket for a couple of years will also be able to predict what he is going to say next. Well, that really does it for doordarshan'’s coverage. Makes me sick in the stomach just to think about the Fair and Lovely Fourth Umpire show. And the most important part is that Doordarshan is the only broadcaster of the cricket series. If there had been any other, there wouldn'’t have been this blogpost, because I'd still be watching the match on the other channel. So thanks DD, for shaking me out of the no-posting phase. Now I gotta run to see how India is doing in the match! Jai Hind!