Of flannelled fools And couch potatoes

Consider the following situation:  In the first week of November, the senior national boxing championship was organised in Hyderabad. Very few people will remember coverage on the fact that it ever did take place, let alone what the results were. On the other hand, not only was there extensive speculation on the print and electronic media on what the Indian team for the four test England series would be, would Yuvraj make it to the squad, can Suresh Raina score enough against Delhi to compel the selectors to pick him ahead of Yuvraj and so on. No sooner had the national team win the first test that the media exploded once again, this time with speculation if this was revenge for the 4-0 whitewash on English soil.

Ironically, barely a few months ago, when the Olympic games were on, it was the same media that was losing its head over the exploits of the Indian pugilists in London. Not only boxing, there was spurt in the coverage that other sports like hockey and badminton got. Yet now, the declaration of the Indian Hockey team for the International Super Series and FIH Champions Trophy barely caused a flutter. So the question is: after the iconic events like the Olympics and the F1 races in India, has the Indian media gone back to its tunnels vision and is unable to see anything beyond cricket? Unfortunately, the answer seems to be a unanimous yes.

“If there are two pages on sports, one and half will be on cricket and on the rest, international football will be prominent. Just on the remaining space all other games are stuffed. If anyone wins some international medal then only that news becomes important to be mentioned briefly. Otherwise there is no coverage,” says Rahul Banerjee, the ace Arjuna awardee archer. Champion wrestler Sushil Kumar has a similar grouse: “During Olympics we got tremendous support from media. But that needs to be continued even when cricket season is at its peak and if that happens, I am sure even other sports will rise exceptionally.”

Sushil is not the only one who has noticed the trend. Interestingly, he is one of the few who are surprised. Says Harpal Singh Bedi, the veteran journalist who has more than 30 years of experience covering Indian sports, “It is nothing new. When the Olympic comes, we show it for 20 to 30 days but beyond that, we are always dominated by cricket. It happened last time also. It is the hard truth that we do not see beyond cricket because other games in comparison to cricket do not exist at all.”

Agrees former Test cricketer Maninder Singh: “Media can only sell what sells. There are no stars and no scope in other sports. Whatever you do, you can not stop cricket taking the lead position in comparison to other sports.”

Singh has a point. Take the example of the Indian Badminton Open at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in Delhi. Though, the tournament had many national and international stars, the stadium looked almost empty. At the same time, a Delhi versus UP domestic cricket match at the Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium in Ghaziabad commanded a packed house with the crown noisily reacting to every ball Raina played or every time Kohli adjusted his sunglasses.

Abhishek Dubey, Sports Editor, IBN7 has an interesting explanation for this national obsession. Says he: “We are not sporting nations per se like Australia and South Africa. Sports is in their DNA and they follow sports like anything. On the contrary, our country does not follow cricket, we follow icons and heroes only and the sport which produces the maximum number of icons, will be followed in India.”

India however, seems to have taken this to an absurd level. Says senior freelance sports journalist Gulu Ezekiel:
“Many countries like Brazil with football are also one-sports-countries. India has a good track record in cricket mainly due to very few nations playing it. But cricketers have glamour, money and fame attached to them. This celebrityhood makes them mega stars and I do not see this trend changing any time soon.”

Harpal Singh Bedi gives a very interesting example to underline Ezekiel’s point. “Can you imagine people congratulating Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo for scoring a goal even when their team have lost. But it happens in India. When Sachin Tendulker made his hundredth hundred, that too against Bangladesh, India lost that match but the whole world was busy in congratulating him. It happened for the first time that despite losing a match people were sending their good wishes. We were the defending champions of the Asia Cup and we could not even reach the final but there was no regret for many because the bigger issue was Sachin had completed his hundredth hundred. From the president to the prime minister every one was congratulating him.”

And then there is the economics. No matter how they perform, the Indian cricket remains in the spotlight when it comes to sponsorships and endorsements. Asks Bedi, “When people are not interested in other games can you generate the interest? The same Indian cricket team went on loosing eight Test matches on the trot on a foreign tour but their status remained intact. They are getting the same sponsorships and endorsement deals. Same kind of interest is there for them so as a correspondent, how can you deviate from this hard fact?”

However, there are several problems with the media itself as well. In comparison to other nations, the standard of sports reporting is not so high in Indian journalism. Also, because it is the dominant sport in the country, very few of the journalists themselves follow the other sports assiduously. Many of them lack interest as well as expertise when it comes to sports like archery or shooting as compared to cricket. Thus even if there is any coverage, it ends up lacking in depth and understanding.

Abhishek Dubey is forthcoming about these problems and admits honestly: “We have made some mistakes and we are making some course correction. We are a TRP driven industry. It may take much more time than expected but I can assure that change has to happen. As a sports reporter, you cannot be satisfied with cricket
reporting only.”

May be many sports reporters have not explored the larger part of sports journalism, being confined to cricket reporting but this trend will carry on until we can create many more Sainas, Gagan Narangs and Sushil Kumars, who come up with scintillating performances consistently. Till then, we seem to be stuck with endless speculation on whether Sachin can play 200 or 300 Test matchesin his career and when Virendra Sehwag will touch his hundred Test matches milestone. 

Do not blame cricket alone: Aakash Chopra

Has cricket pushed out all other sports from media coverage?
I do not see it in that way. We had good enough coverage during the Olympics. If Saina Nehwal was playing some match, we had good reports on that. Ronjon Sodhi and Gagan Narang also got due space. In India cricket is the sport which is followed the most. Thus, it draws the most media attention. It is also very important to understand that India is not doing anything in other sports as significant as what it is doing in cricket. Being a cricketer I could be biased but it is not right to blame cricket for the present scenario.

So are you saying that it is the lack of achievements in other sports that has resulted in low coverage?
Absolutely. See when you talk about sports you want something to celebrate. Once a sports person starts to perform well at the top level in a particular sport, there is change in the perspective of that sport. It is unfair to expect people to be present for a team which comes in 12th in a 12 nation event. That does not mean that fans follow only when teams do well. There are die hard fans who follow at any cost but even for that, we need icons. You must have realised that with shooting. In Beijing Abhinav Bindra got a gold, this time Gagan Narang and Vijay Kumar came out with medals and the result is, there is an increased interest in shooting and larger space and time is being allocated for its coverage. Similarly, now that Saina has started doing well, there is a surge in interest in badminton.

Does it bother you that we have so few international stars outside of cricket?
Definitely. I am extremely happy that Saina is breaking the Chinese domination now. There is somebody who can come in top two, three or four in her discipline. That really gives immense pleasure.

All of us are getting due space: Gagan Narang

Do you feel sports other than cricket are getting their due coverage? If not, why?
Well, I believe that every sport is getting its due space in the media. There is lots of cricket happening so you get to see lots of coverage. But there is also a lot of coverage of the other national and international events like EPL. So it is not just cricket that is occupying the space.
 
But wouldn’t you agree that while even Ranjee matches get huge coverage, other events do not?
I believe a lot is got to do with the economics and the returns you guys get on covering cricket. Also domestic cricket is being shown on ESPN-STAR. So many people can watch it. The first round of matches had huge drama attached to them as all the Indian top stars were playing in a bid to find a place in the team for the England tests. It made for interesting news
 
Do you see any change or it will carry like this only?
The games that are televised, the ones that have mass appeal will always have a lot of coverage. Cricket occupies a huge space in the lives of the Indian sports fans and hence the media-space. Top Indian athletes are having events now. Sania’s  exploits last month were covered.

Gun for glory in Pune, despite having many big shooters, could not get that much of space in media why?
We did get our due coverage during the Gun For Glory shooting championships. I feel there was great coverage when the top shooters shot. And not just them, youngsters like Anam Mirza who did well was also well covered.