Media and cricket enjoy massive following in India. While cricket is like a religion and so media always covers it. So far good but when our team loses, all hell breaks loose on the newspapers and..
THE MEDIA gives good coverage to cricket and cricketers and rightly so. They follow them till match is finished and get reactions from viewers. They celebrate in victory but go after them in defeat. The media doesn’t want the team to lose. While a win is win media gives credit to team by deleting some shortcomings. While analyzing defeat the media points the finger at captain. They slam the captain and team for the defeat. While decoding reasons for defeat the media will pick one point, which will be a small matter relevant to the defeat.
One prime example to strengthen this point is Sachin Tendulkar’s dismissal in the CB series in Australia. The reason according to one channel was that Brett Lee blocked Sachin from completing the run. The replays showed that Lee was looking at ball hitting the stumps. It clearly showed umpire has made correct decision. But the channel was repeatedly showing the footage and accused Australian team of not being sportive. In the same match an Australian player was declared not out .The replays showed other way. That decision by umpire is shocking and it deserves condemnation. The commentary team was also shocked. But the channel and its presenter overlooked the fact despite knowing the bowler is not blocking the way for batsman.
According to that particular channel the run out was the turning point of the match. The particular channel has the habit of taking a dig at Australian team. By giving too much coverage to the incident they push the reason that defeat goes to Australian team and umpire. While public knew what happened on the field the media goes other way.
While analyzing the win or defeat they conveniently overlook basic points. The way media goes after cricket and players is not good. They refuse to swallow defeat. Winning and losing is part of the game. We need to show maturity. For a win the team gets due credit and is awarded front page of the newspapers. The media is too crazy for cricket. It is not acceptable while for other people who don’t follow cricket it is just another game.
To tell about Indian team in one word – The building is strong but the basement is weak. My request to media would be to avoid going after the team. The way media raises fingers at them affects their performance. We should rather allow them to play normally without any pressure and last but not the least we should learn to swallow defeats.
