The good, the bad and the ugly
FROM THE STANDS
Hiding Hayden
Mathew Hayden retired from international cricket on January 13. The Indian Express gave him a fitting 500 word write-up. Fair enough. Hayden was a world class, and maybe, as some have argued, the best opener in the world. So 500 words on his retirement seems justified. The Express also had a nice report on the press conference given by Hayden, providing details that made the image more vivid in the readers’ minds, such as the fact that Hayden’s son was present at the conference. It also provided many quotes from the prepared statement Hayden read out to the press, letting the readers know how Hayden felt, who he thanked, and what his plans were for the future, amongst other topics. Well done, Indian Express, at least you have the readers’ interest in mind.
The Times of India, on the other hand, once again showed that it is a newspaper solely bent on business and no sensitivity. Hayden’s retirement received only 100 words, giving the barest details about the press conference. It even had basic mistakes in grammar in the short reporter. Come on, Times, show some interest, you might even see that you’ll sell more copies if you do.
The Hindu, true to its deliberately blinkered view, did not even mention that Hayden had retired. It did, however, have a number of stories of far less consequence, but with more Indian involvement. The only international cricket story was that Pietersen said
Game, set, match
Somdev Devvarman deserves the press he is getting. His doings in the Chennai Open are the reason for that. After all, beating two top-50 players and engaging Marin Cilic, the eventual winner of the Chennai Open, in a level battle are impressive achievements. Not only this, but in doing so, he jumped 48 places in the ATP rankings, placing him at number 154.
The Indian Express again performed well, and up to the readers’ standard by devoting 600 words to the rising tennis star. The reporter took the effort to find quotes from reputed ex-players like Ramanathan Krishnan as well as current players like Carlos Moya on Somdev’s rise. Even former national coach T Chandrasekaran had a few words on the youngster, and these were added in the report.
The Times of India, too, gave Somdev lots of coverage. There were four separate short reports based on the youngster, each on a separate subject, while the Express dealt with him in one long report.
One of the reports was on how the rise of Somdev as a formidable force in Indian tennis has forced the organizers of the Davis Cup to rethink about the surface on which the tournament will be played. Somdev is not very comfortable on grass, but specializes on hard courts, which might force the organizers to break with tradition and have the tournament on a hard surface. This is big news in Indian tennis, which is sadly scarce of news, and so deserves a mention.
The second report was on an interview with Somdev’s coach Jacek Wolicki, another good angle. The third report was an interview with the young tennis star himself. Somdev talks about how he took up tennis and ho he is going to deal with the responsibility of being the new ‘leader of Indian tennis’, amongst other things. The fourth report was on the fact that Somdev would have to play against Prakash Amritraj in the Australian Open qualifiers.
All of these reports show that the Times of India has taken a lot of effort to bring Somdev to the people. Contrary to how they dealt with Hayden’s retirement, the Times showed that they, at least in this case, were looking at the issue from the point of view of the readers.
The Hindu goofed again. Expectedly. The paper must seriously reconsider what it thinks is news, since what it reports is not very interesting, and what it misses out is the big news.
Looking at these two main topics, I can see a general pattern which these three mainstream national dailies fall into.
Indian Express seems to have a good sports desk, dealing with the important issues in some detail.
The Times of India is erratic in how it deals with the same issues, giving lots of importance to some, and none to others. But that is the prerogative of the sports editor, I imagine.
The Hindu is consistent, at best. It consistently misses the good stories and reports the fluff, showing a complete lack of interest at the Sports Desk. Come on, Hindu, if you want your sports page to be taken seriously, you are going to have to up your game very soon.