Thats the question which has puzzled me ever since SET MAX started off with this concept since the last world cup. In a cricket crazy country like ours, we will anyways be glued to the tv sets to see all the cricketing action. We would love to see a Harsha Bholge having a very learned and intelligent conversation with cricketing greats about the finer points of the game. Then why do we need this extra bit of spice? Why this attempt at adding some more tadka to a daal which we anyways enjoy so much? Having said that, there is another side to this spice too. These days, as the champions trophy gets into the semi finals phase, and the whole focus shifting to the poor performance of the subcontinental teams, I see a lot of people making sure that they just see the pre match and post match analysis, the cricketing action be damned. I heard Tony Greig telling Mandira Bedi, " Hey Mandira, that outfit you are wearing is the mest outfit I have ever seen on any Indian woman." You can also be assured of hearing something or the other about her looks, her apperances from everyone who is a part of the panel. It might lighetn up things, sure, add up to the TRPs as well, but what about cricket? Just about everytime Sir Geoffrey is making a telling comment on the state of the match, we hear someone laughing, or just chatting away, or saying something which may be totally tangential. And more often than not, its our host with the most, Mandira.
I am not trying to argue that she shouldnt be there. But I do believe that a sport so great as cricket, lets not try to trivialise it. Have her there sure, but lets also have some cricketing interest there too. Look at the lady commentator from West Indies, she looks good, has a great voice, a sharp wit, and she can effortlessly hold her own fort in a commentary room. Lets have Mandira out of the studio and into the commentary room in the field. Then I think the experimet will have truly worked. Afterall We see the game as a battle between bat and ball, cant imagine to link it up with anything else.About the AuthorBhupendra Chaubey Bhupendra Chaubey has been a TV journalist for the past 12 years starting his career with NDTV. As a political journalist travelling across the length...Read Morefirst published:October 28, 2006, 13:05 ISTlast updated:October 28, 2006, 13:05 IST
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What is that you like the most on a cricket field? A tearaway fast bowler aka Shoaib Akhtar or Bret Lee, steaming in hard, hurling deliveries to Sachin Tendulkar or A sanath Jayasuriya, and then in this battle of talent, you want the best man to win. In a sense thats what the game of cricket is all about. Battle between prodigious talents. Obviously its not possible for all of us to witness all this on a cricket ground, thats why we spend so many hours watching all the action on the small screen. Connecting our home theatres and tryig our best to recreate a stadium like atmosphere bang in our living rooms. And as much as we love the action on the field, we also love to see the pre match and post match anaylsysis being done by the doyens of the game. Geoffrey Boycott, Tony greig, Michael Holding, we love to hear all of them. Maybe we want to gain something from their own cricketing experinece. But hey wait a minute, in this line up of legends why do we have to listen to someone like Mandira Bedi? What is the great virtue that she can bestow upon us through her commentary? Or let me put it this way, is she here to commentate?
Thats the question which has puzzled me ever since SET MAX started off with this concept since the last world cup. In a cricket crazy country like ours, we will anyways be glued to the tv sets to see all the cricketing action. We would love to see a Harsha Bholge having a very learned and intelligent conversation with cricketing greats about the finer points of the game. Then why do we need this extra bit of spice? Why this attempt at adding some more tadka to a daal which we anyways enjoy so much? Having said that, there is another side to this spice too. These days, as the champions trophy gets into the semi finals phase, and the whole focus shifting to the poor performance of the subcontinental teams, I see a lot of people making sure that they just see the pre match and post match analysis, the cricketing action be damned. I heard Tony Greig telling Mandira Bedi, " Hey Mandira, that outfit you are wearing is the mest outfit I have ever seen on any Indian woman." You can also be assured of hearing something or the other about her looks, her apperances from everyone who is a part of the panel. It might lighetn up things, sure, add up to the TRPs as well, but what about cricket? Just about everytime Sir Geoffrey is making a telling comment on the state of the match, we hear someone laughing, or just chatting away, or saying something which may be totally tangential. And more often than not, its our host with the most, Mandira.
I am not trying to argue that she shouldnt be there. But I do believe that a sport so great as cricket, lets not try to trivialise it. Have her there sure, but lets also have some cricketing interest there too. Look at the lady commentator from West Indies, she looks good, has a great voice, a sharp wit, and she can effortlessly hold her own fort in a commentary room. Lets have Mandira out of the studio and into the commentary room in the field. Then I think the experimet will have truly worked. Afterall We see the game as a battle between bat and ball, cant imagine to link it up with anything else.
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