By Anil
September 15 2005

Today, the Indian captain drove home a point after scoring a century despite being in poor form. But media in his own country are more interested in creating scandals where none exist. Sourav Ganguly seldom has time for the rank and file of cricket journalists, who seem to take less interest in the sport than raking up unnecessary controversies.

In the latest instance of irresponsible journalism, Ganguly, in an interview after his century today was prodded repeatedly by TV anchor Harsha Bhogle on "negative vibes" and "dressing-room tensions", rather than cricket action during the day.

Sourav warded off most of these questions, replying that the players are too mature to indulge in anything that would detract from team performance, but Harsha was undeterred.

Instead of focussing on the century, he proceeded to quiz Sourav about the criticism of his form in the previous Test series (against Pakistan). Probing for a provocative sound bite, Harsha wanted to know, more than once, if Sourav was "angry" about it. Clearly he was hoping for an answer in the affirmative that would allow the media to report sensationalist news, as they had done the previous day after Laxman's fighting century. Instead, the captain merely said that he accepted the criticism, and his form during that series justified it.

Why Indian journalists try to get century-makers in trouble with off-the-cuff remarks, rather than appreciate their efforts, is something only their twisted minds could know.

After a long day out in the middle, and relentless cross-examination by this otherwise sensible journalist who was clearly angling for ratings, Ganguly slipped his guard.

Harsha asked him point-blank, multiple times, whether anybody had asked him to resign as captain. Eventually, Ganguly admitted that the question had been brought up on the eve of the match. However, the captain said this without any malice, and mentioned it as a reason for the added determination in his knock today.

The result? A slew of media articles that ignore Ganguly's achievements of 5000 Test runs and 12th Test century, instead ranting and raving about his disclosure that he had been asked to resign.

Such vindictive press from Indian journalists in place of coverage of the cricket action, and more importantly appreciation of the cricket that will allow India tomorrow to register one of the more crushing wins of recent times, make them difficult to comprehend.

Cricinfo, a particularly pathetic tabloid-style site devoted to cricket, went the extra mile by slamming Ganguly for his "slow century". The journalist, a bitter man called Dileep Premachandran whose requests for interviews with Ganguly have been politely turned down time and again, is the same fellow who the previous day hailed another patient century as one that allowed batsman Laxman to "turn the corner". As always, the photograph accompanying the day's report is an unflattering one, showing Ganguly ducking a bouncer instead of hitting the boundary that brought up his century -- especially for a team that is about to register a victory of an innings and 150+ runs.

The Premachandrans and Vasus of Cricinfo would be well-advised to stop covering Indian cricket if they cannot stop criticizing and slamming the team even when they are doing well. Their not-so-hidden agenda against members of the Indian team, and strong support of foreign teams, make these people unfit to report on our cricket. Wisden Asia was abruptly shut down by their Indian publishers recently. Wisden and Cricinfo: stick to the Ashes and leave Indian cricket alone!

As to the rest of the Indian media that likes to dwell on controversy rather than cricket, would you please learn some elementary rules of journalism?