Indian Cricket
Sensationalist Indian Media Overplays Its Hand
By Indian Cricket Fever
May 26 2013
The IPL is hugely successful. Stadiums are full, TV screens attract billions of eyeballs, yet the Indian media are calling for the IPL to be scrapped. Luckily saner heads prevailed and nothing of the sort happened. But it does call into question the maturity of the media in the country.
Despite threats to abandon the IPL final, it took place as scheduled and the Mumbai Indians (MI) played the perenially successful (though now legitimately tainted) Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and beat them convincingly in Kolkata to become the 2013 Pepsi IPL Champions. The crowd at this neutral venue was housefull. The IPL must be doing something right. In stark contrast the National Championship between Mumbai and Saurashtra was played in front of nearly non-existent crowds. In fact it seemed the only people watching the match were the teams, their support staff a few half-interested media persons, a couple of selectors and a small contingent of pot bellied policemen and the odd die hard fan via Willow on the internet. And this was the National Championship.
So clearly the IPL is doing something right. Let us stipulate that the sordid details of alleged spot-fixing which have come to light via an investigation of the Delhi Police along with counterparts in Gujarat and Mumbai, and even the betting on matches by CSK chief Gurunathan and his crony Vindoo Dara Singh are true, why is the media so hell bent on discrediting one if India's great success stories? It seems that a responsible media would undoubtedly report on the wrong-doing, even criminal wrong doing of people both inside and outside the IPL, but would not tar and feather the whole enterprise. They would balance the many positives the league has provided, not the least of which is the employment of hundreds of Indian cricketers, and the raising of salaries of thousands of others via the riches it provides the Indian cricket board. Also the number of ancilliary jobs provided by the running of a league that has 40-80 thousand fans showing up at Stadiums accross the country and boosting the economy with their pocket books for two months in a row is not to be sneered at, and even this is only the icing on the cake, which is actually the hundred million or more who watch the matches on TV every night for a period of 6-8 weeks. The economic stimulus of that would raise a lot of boats at all levels of the economic spectrum, from the sweeper who gets hired to clean up after the game, to the photographers who provide pictures for print media, to commentators who are hired to cover the games, to the Corporates who rent out boxes to hob-nob with potential clients or reward past achievements of employees. The IPL stimulates a hell of a lot of legitimate business activity.
Does that mean that nefarious and criminal elements in India and in cahoots with others in places like Dubai and Karachi etc. are not also trying to cash in on the tournament and its phenomenal popularity? Of course, not. They are for sure aware of the popularity of the IPL and therefore are attracted to it. Afterall nobody hears of Dubai Dons betting on Ranji matches.
But just because the IPL is suceptible to falling prey to greed and criminality does it mean that one should throw the baby out with the dirty bathwater? What a responsible media would do would be to present the facts, and not conflate them with mere allegations, hearsay, or worse speculation in a breathless and shrill 24/7 media frenzy to sensationalize the news and demonize the entire enterprise. This in the short term may be useful in that it shines a harsh spot light on wrong doing, but in the long run, when some of the allegations are shown to be false or half-truths the general public will see that the media are not interested so much in the truth but in TRP and ratings and the public rightly will discount them. This in the long term does much more harm. It is simply a case of the media crying wolf too often, because when it does so, in the begining it gets attention, and earns money from advertising, etc, but soon people discount it as source of the truth. One can see signs of this even now, as crowds at the IPL games have hardly diminished after the news coverage of spot fixing, etc. began.
An independent and vigilant media and a free press are the cornerstone of a democracy, and where they see wrong doing, abuse of power, etc. they must speak out freely. But with that freedom comes some responsibility, including the responsibility to filter the truth from mere sensationalism, and to provide larger perspective on the events of the day. That sadly is lacking from the Indian media at this time. In fact by overplaying their hands they often turn off the people who get cynical about the media themselves and stop paying attention. When that happens the real wrong doers are able to escape scot-free and if that happens that will be the real tragedy.
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26/05/2013 21:40
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:06:09:20:39:56 by Birbal.
Unfortunately our media lives in caveman era and can only think in binary terms. The morons do not realize that IPL gives them lot of news sometimes more than politics..
In this atmosphere...it is hard to see incidents like where certain Aussie players referred to Sri Lankans as Black Cu..ts or Black Monkeys...occurring.
He is blaming the media for everything... and the media by overplaying their hand have actually done something that most would have thought hard to do...i.e. generate some sympathy for Srinivasan...
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:05:26:23:45:04 by Birbal.
and took it just too far.....
the fallout of this might be an overhaul of IPL and also BCCI structure
Hardly any coverage of the ICC opening round win over South Africa on a couple of English language channels that are HOT AND HEAVY on the corruption in the IPL story...
Well... bottom line is IPL is no more, or less corrupt than Indian government and society in general.
The real story is that Sreesanth, Chavan, and Chandila are in jail...while Vindoo and Guru out on bail...
Sreesanth and Co. may be stupid and greedy, but doubt they are terrorists...yet they are in jail on MCOCA...but Indian media is not bothered...
meyappan and kundra only betted....and that is not construed as forgery.
the onus is on cbi to prove that these guys fixed and then betted
Quote:Birbal
Forgery? What Forgery?
acting against the interest of your employer.....and in your own interest for monetary gains is forgery
Quote:Birbal
oh..ok...in USA usually related to faking signatures or documents...
if you take money from an outsider to release your company's bid /tender prices.....is it not deemed forgery in US ?
It needs heavy cleansing. Otherwise,people will not even know when they are being fooled.Once they realize that matches were not played seriously ,they will stop watching it .Then it will be an effort to keep IPL going.
After the spot fixing and betting allegations...the crowds at the grounds did not go down...
But then the crowd is probably already pretty sure that this is just TAMASHA cricket...the kind to be enjoyed while have a beer and some batata vadas at a pub with friends... not serious stuff like Test cricket... or even International ODIs...
Btw, I think T20 between nations is a JOKE...they should only have club or league cricket of that length...
Are you implying that people already know matches are being spot-fixed and even then they go to see them?
I think they think that whatever fixing was done, was done before the current match and this match will be clean .
Once this trust is broken completely - no of people going to see will reduce.
I hope that does not happen though.
The Police...with the help of unquestioning sensationalist media... railroaded these guys... luckily for Chavan he got to get out for a week to get married... (Lot more legitimate than letting those Italian soldiers out for Christmas)... but Sreesanth was in custody for two weeks... because he was accused under MCOCA...
If you have the time, patince and money to fight it out in the Indian system..you will get then you di get justice more often than not
Quote:Birbal
BASHING the IPL has fallen out of favor... right now BASH Narendra Modi...is the media's favorite activity...
yes IPL/ srinivasan/ fixing outlived it's shelf life....and was replaced by BJP internal turmil and the Modi / nitish drama.
at any point there can be only one No.1 story.
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