Cricket’s back in focus

It’s taken its time coming, but finally we have an India series on TV with a set of (largely) neutral commentators. What that has succeded in doing, apart from breaking the monotony of listening to the same voices, is prove that there is only so much one can say about a team of players — their merits and demerits — however entertaining the players themselves might be. It’s refreshing change, and one that should be welcomed.

Take your mind back to the last couple of years; do you recall anything new being said about Tendulkar or Dravid or Ganguly? Not only that, we have heard umpteen number of times exactly how dangerous Messrs Gilchrist and Hayden can be, exactly what makes Brett Lee so special, ad nauseum. This is not to plug for one sports channel at the cost of another, but surely there’s no harm in bringing in a spot of freshness, especially when we have a series of such significance on our hands.

Another thing we saw with the coverage on TV today was how it stayed true to the subject in hand. Of late, not just in India but across the sporting world, breaks in games have moved into fluff territory.

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Pulp stuff, basically aimed at entertaining a small number who may or may not be part of what we call the cricketing public. It’s often been difficult to figure where sport ended and entertainment began — or were they now the same thing? Here, on an occasion which would normally attract people like filmstars, models, celebs and other P3P, we saw the coverage stick to cricket — news, views and all the analysis — that has always been the original break-time staple.

Not bad for a start, seeing that the true fan believes the series is about cricket. Fresh faces, fresh voices, some refreshing old-fashioned coverage; almost ideal for the series that’s easily the biggest in a long, long time.