Reporting on cricket

Just discovered this weekly column that Harsha Bhogle writes for Indian Express.

http://iecolumnists.expressindia.com/columnist_index.php?columnist_id=38

Have wasted the last one hour reading his past columns and still not done with them all :)

BTW, I was chatting with my cousin in India a couple of days back and came to know the pathetic state of cricket coverage out there. The set of commentators on DD is the same as we get out here - Sanjay Manjrekar, Ravi Shastri, Arun Lal, Rameez Raja and Aamir Sohail. But, its the supporting the cast out there that adds all the spice. Firstly, there is the set of jokers who discuss the pre and post match scenario on DD - Mohinder Amarnath (ok not so bad), Maninder Singh (how much worse can it get), Krish Srikanth (does he ever talk sense) and DD's good old anchor for any kind of sport Charu Sharma. I can't even imagine how pathetic these discussions would be! But, one of my friends who returned from India a couple of days back claimed that they were decent ... don't know whether to believe him ;)

Only DD has the official rights to telecast the series live, but obviously the other channels are going to have experts review the situation regularly. Of course, ESPN-Star has the cream of the lot in Harsha Bhogle, Sunil Gavaskar, Wasim Akram and Geoffrey Boycott. But, the other channels have stooped to really low levels. Of all possible people around, Aaj Tak has Saba Karim on contract to offer his expert comments! And, Zee News, as though fighting to claim the "most pathetic expert award", has Salil Ankola express his opinions! I thought he had decided to spend the rest of his life acting in music videos and serials. I guess he too is looking to make some quick bucks and cash in on the hype. So, ignoring ESPN-Star, the best catch seems to have been made by NDTV who have the great Sardar Navjot Singh Sidhu on contract (isn't he an MP for god's sake!).

Anyway, my enthu for watching cricket is pretty low at the moment after watching the dispriting performance yesterday. It looks pretty certain that the toss is going to decide the result in each match of this series. Hopefully Tiger, Vijay and Michelson will put in great performances tomorrow at the Masters and drive up my spirits.

Cheers,
Harsha