is Nirmal Shekhar in this article.
1. It was the players and not the BCCI who called for the suspension of the tour. And they had pretty valid reasons for this.
2. It is a pity the BCCI had to use its financial clout to get Bucknor out. If the ICC had been half as proactive, things would not have come to this. It was not the first time that Mr Bucknor ( and Mr Benson) displayed incompetence and a blatant disregard for the rules of the game.
3. 24 hour news channels are going to play up certain aspects of the game - that is media responsibility/culpability.
4. Obviously Mr Shekhar has not had to endure an entire season of Mr Nicholas and Mr Healy on the Channel 9 commentary box.
If 24 hour news media and the hype they generate is Mr Shekhar's window to India's sporting culture, he needs to step out of the office a bit more.
And, a little fact checking will also help.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
All mixed up
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7 comments:
Nirmal is hoping for a guest assignment at The Australian. Or with Fox Sports.
Samir,
Nirmal is arguably the finest writer in sports journalism today in India and it is a little harsh to dismiss him as an assignment seeker. The guy has travelled all round the world covering Tennis and writes about cricket when he wants to express his opinion and while one may seek to disagree with his opinions, please do not club him with the tele-journalists that we have to endure through. It is a disservice to his great talent of writing sports poetry.
I am in India now and watching some of the television channels and some of the stuff coming on these channels about the OZ team makes me want to hurl. TO call the OZ team sore-losers based on what some journos have writted about some of the decisions is wrong but that is exactly what these channels are doing and are clearly whipping up sentiments. However, I do not agree with Nirmal's key points in his article - I think he has disregarded additional facts.
Homer, thanks for the email. Opened my gmail only today.
Prabu,
I must confess, I have no idea who Nirmal Shekhar is. My response to this piece then, is based upon its content not upon the writer's antecedent reputation. The reason I described him as seeking an assignment is that he seems to have swallowed a certain party line in his rush to provide a "balanced" view. I'm glad I'm not subjected to Indian television journalism, but that doesn't mean I have to forgive Shekhar for a similarly unbalanced view. (I'm not clubbing him with tele-journalists by the way, just suggesting that he is only looking at one side of things - personally, to suggest that Channel 9's coverage is oh-so-super gives the game away a bit).
Cheers,
Samir
My point exactly Samir.
Prabu,
Since when did TV journos have any credibility whatsoever in India and since when did the so called news channels reflect the public mood?
We have had this discussion before of "spontaneous" mob of effigy burners and the "miracle" of the TV cameras being present at that very instant.
And if Mr Shekhar gives credence to this and expects us to introspect, he is way off the mark.
Cheers
Nirmal is generally a good journo sports writer... I must agree on one thing that the manner in which Bucknor was dropped was not right. Sure we had reasons to complain as it didn't look like mere mistakes and there was more than what met the eye. But the ICC should have set up a committee to look into the complaint to check for malicious intent, current abilities and then pass the appropriate judgment.... such like what they did to Hair, where I believe it was a fair hearing, found guilty and sacked.
Scorpicity,
The ICC has a mechanism of gathering feedback from the rival captains post match to evaluate the umpires performances in the game.
If the captains do not have confidence in the umpires, the ICC should act to address that.
Instead we have the spectacle of the captains reports being shared with the umpires - thus prejudicing them further.
And every time the topic of umpiring decisions come up, the ICC bandy the "97% correct" line. Every single time.
If the ICC does not have processes to correct and improve umpiring standards, it is incumbent on the stake holders to step in.
I am amazed that the BCCI had to make a song and dance about this instead of the ICC being pro active and rectifying the situation.
For far too long, incompetent umpiring has got a free pass because of ICC lethargy.If it took the BCCI and thier money power to change this, more power to the BCCI :)
Cheers
You are right Homer... the ICC should have been pro-active and the world blames the BCCI in the name of money power which is prejudice by itself. This was actually good for the game and makes everyone accountable. On the other side of the world, everyone disagrees and don't want to do anything about it a the same time.
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