Well done, boys
The newspapers were obliging for a change and actually wrote about what the readers wanted.
The print media did justice to the Nadal-Federer match says S R KHELKOODKAR.
FROM THE STANDS
S R Khelkoodkar
There seems to be an excitement in among newspapers about sports. That is heartening, considering the fact that almost all of them have been freezing their employment schedules and are in fact, down-sizing. This, perhaps, reflects the demand of the Indian readers, and if so, these newspapers have been doing a very good job at meeting it.
There is, of course, the fact that the events that these papers covered were momentous, but the point is that even momentous events can be carried in a boring manner, with no imagination.
Such excitement regarding sports should remain. There will be a day when Indian players will reach the pinnacle of sports, and then it would truly be a shame, if we just didn’t care.
But not yet. The news of the week was that it happened again – Spaniard Nadal defeated the Swiss Federer in the Australian Open. Had Federer won instead, he would have equaled Sampras at the pinnacle of tennis history. So Nadal’s victory is even more remarkable.
Will Nadal continue to foil Federer? The whole world is interested in knowing about the titanic struggle between these two. And, fortunately, the newspapers were obliging for a change and actually wrote about what the readers wanted.
The match was on the front pages, and main sports pages, of the Times of India, the Hindu and the Indian Express. Yes, the match did deserve that much space, also because the effect of losing on Federer was indeed ‘news worthy’.
However, there was another win at the Australian Open that was significant. The Mixed Doubles win, by Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza. This, too, was given generous amounts of space.
On the day of the Federer-Nadal match, there was another match, a cricket match between
Their respective losses will be working on the minds of both, the Australian players and Federer. This cricket match, however, was given very little space. Why, dears? Bored with cricket?
The Hindu, on its front page, had a photograph of Nadal celebrating his victory, and a succinct account of the situation as it stands, as a caption. I feel that the Bhupathi-Mirza win should also have featured on the front page. But the Hindu is such a boring paper! Come on you stodgy paper, wake up to the concept of ‘catching the eye’!
The Times of India did better on the front page. Always a paper of bright colours, the Australian Open spread on the front page brightly, and briefly, gave the news about the Singles as well as the Mixed Doubles Finals.
The Indian Express also featured only the Singles Final. With a big photograph of Federer crying, they also had a caption explaining the situation, focusing on that element of the night’s proceedings rather than the match itself. It is news worthy only in a popular sense; they want to see Federer crying.
But is it really the news of that night? Is that the focus? Very disappointing, Indian Express.
As I said, all three papers featured the Federer-Nadal match well. The Hindu had a big photograph of the post-match ceremony and a large piece on the match. The Times of India pulled out all stops and devoted the entire main sports page to Nadal and Federer in a flashy display. The Indian Express granted the Men’s Singles and Mixed Doubles finals its entire main sports page, too.
The other two papers also featured the Mixed Doubles finals decently, with good photographs of, and reports on, the match. The Australia-New Zealand cricket match was given a small single column space in the Hindu, a little larger space in the Times of India, and one paragraph in the Indian Express. Come on, it was bigger news than that, I think.
Well, anyway, it’s the Editor’s decision, I guess. But this time around, when there was big news, all three newspapers fared reasonably well, on the whole, if you make allowances for Indian English.
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