Selective Amnesia There was a point to this. But I forgot.

Sydney Fiasco – Indian Media going overboard

There is no doubt that it was really sad to watch India lose a match which they could have atleast drawn (realistically speaking, had all umpiring decisions been correct, India could have actually won the match). Then the racism row, something that should have not happened in the first place. Harbhajan was handed a 3 match ban instantaneously (quite amazing, super quick judgement – Saudi style) Be that as it may, on one hand things were already quite heated up in Sydney.

On the other hand, the Indian media seemed to add more fuel to fire. The effect to this “adding fuel to fire” was quite visible when we witnessed one of India’s most famous and familiar way of protest – “burning of effigies“. The media was also prompt in reporting as to how Harbhajan’s mom felt her son could never be wrong (it reminds me of the then famous ‘Sehwag ki Maa’ days) and how a conspiracy seems to have been hatched against her son. Moreover, never mind the official confirmation from ICC or the BCCI, the media had also started speculating the fate of the tour indicating that the tour might be well called off.

As if the contributions of the print media was not enough, the visual media lead by CNN-IBN (one disgusting news channel) and TIMES NOW (yuk, english counterparts of Stars News in terms of content) were quite irrepressible and tried their best to make the discussions with so called “experts” on the topic more glamorous. Would you believe it, the expert opinions of Irrrrfan Khan (I donno how many R’s his numerologist had recommended) and Mandira Bedi (after whom the experience of watching cricket was never the same again) on behalf of bollywood was also taken and quoted. I really donno what bollywood has got to do with this. Tomorrow a Rakhi Sawant would come, sit in the commentary box and tell us how Sachin should be playing his sweep shots or how Saurav should play his cover drives. Quite disgusting. And, NDTV, not to be left behind, are running a “India, Come Back” campaign on their website. Come’on NDTV, never expected this from you.

I wonder where the Indian media wants to take us at the end of the day. Biased views and irrational speculations guided by a commercial motive is the essense of todays media. Cricket is a sport which I have followed all through my life so passionately and it is quite disgusting and disappointing to hear actors like Irrfan Khan or Mandira Bedi talk about cricket.

Not surprisingly Mike Coward in his article quite aptly termed the Indian media as a partisan and ropeable.