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The
on going series between India and Pakistan has
been a far cry from my expectations. The matches
seem dull, and the Indo-Pak rivalry doesn't seem
to have triggered the fanaticism in the crowd
that it normally used to. What makes the matches
even dull is the DD panel of commentators, who
can go to any length just to make sure that by
the time the match concluded, you would have
exhausted your dictionary of verbal and
probably, gone ahead to create a few new ones
too!!!
The commentary in Hindi is hilariously stupid
and the English commentators leave no stone
unturned in blowing the pronunciations and
grammar of the Queen's language to pieces. I
really wonder how on earth, do these people get
to commentate, when their basics of English
grammar is still not clear. The usage of the
same expressions, over and over again, to
describe a particular shot or a wicket makes the
match coverage pretty depressing.
"This is a lovely ball 'balled' by an Irfan
Pathan. The ball hit the deck and climbed on a
Salman Butt.".... "... a beautiful sound of ball
hitting timber was generated by a fastest man ,
the Shoaib Akhtar"... "Tendulkar slashed the bat
(????) and the bat will fetch him a four
run(??)."
These are some common remarks I hear in their
presentation. It goes on to get worse with
something like "The India has beaten the
Pakistan by a large (??) margin. As per aa-war
records, the India has beaten their opposing
team by 46 huge runs!!" I mean this is
ridiculous. Even my dogs know to correct usage
of the articles and start barking the moment
they hear such blunders. (Not surprisingly
enough, my dogs keeps barking the entire time
these morons commentate!)
And this is NOT IT! What finally makes you turn
suicidal is the constant inflow of irritating
ads. The moment the batsmen connects the last
ball of the over, DD decides to go in for a
break. The fate of that particular ball is
unknown till the next bowler is about to deliver
the first ball of his over. The channel seems
hell bent on showing as many ads as possible,
and in doing so, forgetting what they really
should be showing. If somehow they return live
and realise that they can push in another 4-5
ads before the viewers hear the sweet sound of
the ball hitting the meat of the bat, they will
not hesitate to do so. I'm totally on board with
the concept of generating millions of rupees
through advertisements during such a high
profile match. But it irks me to know that it is
being done so, at the cost of the match itself.
As an ardent Indian supporter, I wish to at
least know the fate of the last delivery. I so
desire that a beauty of a classic drive or the
peach of a delivery, gets the deserved
recognition by these commentators.
Cricket is a religion in India. Every match
which involves India is like a high profile
Yagna and the commentary is the recital of the
shlokas. As in a yagna, you cannot recite wrong
shlokas and mantras because you don't want to
suffer the wrath of the Gods. The same applies
to cricket and probably this is why our team can
never get everything right in a game.
It's high time DD recruits a few able
commentators who actually know how to commentate
and make the game worth watching. If cricket is
a religion, then we obviously don't want the
wrong pundits performing the puja because after
all, it's all about appeasing the cricket
Gods... isn't it?
शक्ति जो चेतन थी,
अब जड़ हो गयी है।
बचपन में जो कुंजी मेरे पास थी,
उम्र बढ़ते बढ़ते
वह कहीं खो गयी है।
- दिनकर
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Comments: |
Siddharth, good article on Cricket.
Yes, we need to have much better
cricket communicator. I guess time
is ripe to up our level in this area
too.
Recruit a guy who has great
knowledge of the Indian culture, can
relate anecdotes, is very humorous,
knows physics to relate ball
movement, mass, velocity, air
density influence on swing, and
expert in body language,
statistician, etc etc.. Wow, he must
be one heck of a guy... May be I can
fit that bill, but nay, time illa..
Good article sir! - Sharad Mohan
- Nov. 15, 2007
DD is no different than any other
government establishment. It has to
accommodate everyone. It is free.
Business is profit-oriented.
And then, it is the attitude. Can
someone imagine a John Abraham
poster in a Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan?
Well, he can wear dhoti if not
shirt. Why not? Government
organizations are not ready to break
the image.
Good to see you back, Mr.
Siddhartha. - Kumod Jha - Nov.
15, 2007
I
still believe Doordarshan is good
channel to watch with few
exceptions. Nothing comes free my
dear. Last Australia series telecast
was shown with as it is feed from
Neo sports including their
advertisements. From where DD will
generate revenue to pay expert
commentators? So DD has become a
charity channel.
Some of their programmes, news etc
are good. They don't bore us with
stupid discussions with
unprofessional news readers like
other channels. We need to watch it
more and increase its TRP and then
something good may come out. Only
problem with DD is its government
controlled and they start doing
politics. Sometimes they land up
doing cheap politics like not
showing Amitabh's illness news
because Sonia does not like Amitabh.
I am sure they may have some forum,
email IDs where we can give feedback
to improve their qualities. -
Sarvesh Kumar - Nov. 16, 2007
No
offense but, watching DD more to
improve the quality of programs
reminds me of a story.
The bridegroom was served 56 dishes
for dinner at his 'sasural'. The
groom wanted to save his favorite
dishes for the last. So, he started
with the ones he did not relish
much. The hosts thought that the
ones he started with must be his
favorites. When he finished eating
the first few dishes, they asked him
if he liked those. He obviously said
he did. So, the hosts served those
dishes again and again. At the end
of the dinner, he could not eat his
favorite dishes as he was already
stuffed with the others. Thereafter,
on each of his visits, he is served
the same dishes till the day when he
revealed the truth in embarrassment.
Even if you stop watching DD (as
many have), it does not affect DD
much while it is backed by heavy
funding from the government. The
problem with DD is not that it is
controlled by the government, the
problem is that we do not have good
government. We do not have good
government because we are not good
enough to elect good people. The
problem with the private channels is
not that it is controlled by the
market (consumers/viewers), the
problem is that we are not smart
enough to filter out the bad from
the good.
The technological revolution is
challenging the monopoly (control)
of businesses and government. It
will then be left to us to decide
what we want. - Kumod Jha - Nov.
17, 2007 |
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