Anything For TRPs

The Board of Control for Cricket in India president Ranbir Singh Mahendrajust had to say on a TV show that a six-man committee would meet coach GregChappell towards the end of this month to review the Indian cricket team'sprogress - or the lack thereof. A variety of reactions were spawned, much of itfocussing on the promised 'thorough and complete' review.

A press release issued by the TV news channel appears to have caused a beliefto gain ground that the committee would look into the performance of the captainand players. On the contrary, a handful see the move to have a review as anaffront to Chappell. And there is another bunch which believes that thecommittee will review the work of the support staff as well.

Nearly everyone seems to have forgotten that the decision to have the coachmeet the panel regularly was made in June. The panel was first constituted tointerview candidates and appoint a coach for the Indian team. It was thensuggested that the committee be kept in place as a facilitator for Chappell.

"The committee would be for only limited purposes. It will get feedbackfrom the coach at the end of a tour or a tournament. It will have nothing to dowith selection matters," BCCI secretary S.K. Nair said a couple of daysafter the board's working committee decided to use the six-member committee as a'buffer' between the coach and itself.

The TV channel's press release appears to have been drafted in such a way tomake it sound like an inquest into the inability of the cricketers to win thetri-series finals in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. For instance, it talks about thepanel launching a five-day review. Excuse me, what was that again? A five-dayreview? When was the last time any board meeting lasted five days? Mahendra didmention that the meeting would be held on a day between September 26 and 30 butthat does not add up to five days, does it?

Few seem to have paused to reflect how it is only a routine meeting and notan inquest. For God's sake, such review meetings are only to be expected andbesides interacting with the coach and making recommendations, the panel has nopowers to pass judgement on the captain or the players. Besides, from the timeChappell has taken over as coach, the panel has not had a chance to meet him.

On the TV show, Mahendra did talk about a review meeting with the coach butfor the release to go on to say that the panel would carry out "a thoroughand complete review of individual performances, performance of the captain andthe physical fitness of players" was grossly unfair. For, the panel doesnot have the powers to carry out such a review. That is the domain of theselection committee.

And to be fair to the board president, he kept pointing out that he did nothave any say in matters of selection, either of the captain or the players.Having been a part of the show on which the board president was talking to thechannel, I now wonder if TV news channels will go any distance to take potshotsat the cricketers - and get TRPs.

It is not the first time that I am being disappointed by a media releaseaimed at sensationalising. Some five years ago, when the match-fixing scandalwas still brewing, I remember how a website once interviewed a former playerand, in its press release, patched up two statements from either end of theconversation and made it seem like one dramatic sentence.

Of course, bad performances deserve brickbats but to pick on the boardpresident's statement about a review meeting and to give it a twist to make himsound like he were promising a cleansing act is something else that, for me,borders on the strange. Even if the cricketers are not delivering the expectedresults, TV channels want to ride piggyback on the sport. All for a few TRPs.