ESPN Star is a distant winner when it comes to sports telecast in India. They have the best technicians and quality presenters. Especially when it comes to cricket, they have a very good commentary team. Though I personally feel that Wasim Akram and Sunil Gavaskar should not be wielding the megaphone, I am satisfied that a sensible Harsha Bhogle more than makes up for them. Also, the presence of Ravi “cliché” Shastri and Ian “textbook” Chappell in their team offer some respite.
But ESPN Star’s happy halcyon days may soon be over. The combination of TEN/Zee Sports seems to be catching up. This applies not just to cricket, but to football as well. ESPNStar have spotted the competition and have recently resorted to launching India-centric versions of Sportcenter and other programs. But the irony is these programs aren’t any different to the ones we see in IBN Live, Times Now and Aaj Tak. Only insignificant news and rumours take the centre stage. I am sure these programs don’t have enough viewers, at least in the South of India. What we expect from ESPNStar is a news presentation in English; not in hindi.
I have been watching Star Sports ever since the 1996-97 Safari series (India’s trip to South Africa) and I have a sentimental attachment to the channel. I have watched some of India’s successful overseas triumphs on this channel. But recently, ESPNstar seems to have lost out on the broadcasting rights for the matches played in West Indies, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Pakistan to TEN Sports. That leaves them only with the telecast rights for ICC events (for the next 7 years), tours to England and Australia. They have also failed to cover the games played in New Zealand, if not for the Chappell – Hadlee series. Maybe they lacked funds to win the rights, or maybe they thought the Indian audience were not really interested in the cricket being played in the Carribean, South Africa, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
The worst of the cricket channels is Neo Sports which holds the broadcast rights for cricket played in India till 2011. They have a pathetic presenter in Radhakrishnan and a hopeless ‘expert commentator’ in Mohinder Amarnath who hardly makes any sense. If not for Sivaramakrishnan, none in the commentary team deserve a mention. The broadcast quality too isn’t any great. If not for cricket played in India, they absolutely have nothing to telecast in the off-seasons. To patch up all shortcomings, they resorted to glamorising the game with Neha Sarin and Archana Vijaya and pathetically failed in the process. They have recently launched a one hour programme ‘Dial C for Cricket’ where Aamir Sohail and a few other experts answer questions from arbitrary audience. Either the questions are dumb or are the answers for them. My sincere advice to Neo Sports it so close down their operations for their own benefit and that of the cricket viewers in India. They suck.
Any day, I would prefer to tune into ESPN Star or TEN to watch a cricket telecast. My energy levels drop tremendously if the rights are with any other channel. I hope there are many dispirited compatriots like me going through the same motions.
2 responses so far ↓
Barada // April 26, 2008 at 7:28 pm |
You are absolutely right, appart from ESPN Star and up to some extent Tensports the rest are hopeless when come to cricket broadcasting. But unfortunately since 2009 we have to watch our indian cricket matches played in India in bloody either doordarshan or neo sports. Absolutely pathetic.
It seems that ESPN is not getting any rights.
They did not get the IPL Also.
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