Small screen, big picture

The first signs of hype surrounding the India-Pakistan series were visible at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. Sitting two rows behind the I...

The first signs of hype surrounding the India-Pakistan series were visible at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. Sitting two rows behind the Indian national selectors was a man being greeted by everyone around him. He was a Pakistani but he wasn’t here to spy on the Indian cricketers nor to inspect the stadiums; Hasan Jalil was here to produce a 13-part build-up teleseries for PTV.

Back at the Wankhede after nine years — since the 1996 World Cup league match between Australia and India — Jalil was impressed by what he saw. ‘‘It’s changed a lot. The stands are looking better than before, even the media centre has changed tremendously.’’ A noted Pakistan cricket commentator who’s worked with Iftikhar Ahmed, Omar Kureishi and Chishty Mujahid back in the 1970s, Jalil is currently based in the US.

‘‘We usually have these build-up programmes before a major series. This time we will look at the current players maybe even few of the other older ones,’’ said the Karachi-based Jalil.

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Why start in Mumbai? ‘‘I was told this was the best place to start because I would get to speak all the players. And here I am, watching India’s best in action,’’ he said.

Jalil likes talking about another team — the famous commentary team of the 70s.

‘‘It was on par with the best’’, he says, but it won’t be seen in India during the series.

‘‘Ab toh yaar, it’s a different thing we have all the sports channels. But now radio in Pakistan is getting popular and also there are quite a few private radio stations which are coming up, so that is interesting,’’ said Jalil.

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When India toured Pakistan last year, Jalil was very much the lead commentator for Pakistan’s national channel. And it was one of his evening shows featuring former leg-spinner Abdul Qadir and former pace bowler Aaquib Javed that created quite a sensation.

Qadir ‘‘admitted’’ live on air what had always been suspected. ‘‘We (Pakistani bowlers) always do something with the ball (ball banate hain),’’ said Qadir.

He was eventually sacked by PTV, but Jalil realised then the following his programmes had. ‘‘Everybody in India, Pakistan and even the USA were talking about the Qadir comment.’’