Till yesterday the Indian television had lionised M S Dhoni. There was no greater captain in world cricket. He was Captain Cool, the world’s best cricketing brain.
Today, after the semi-final defeat to Australia, the news channels did a shameless flip. They tore into Dhoni mercilessly. Captain Cool became Captain Incompetent and Captain Indefensible. He “tamely handed over the World Cup”.
Minutes after the Sydney defeat, a Times Now anchor went into an overdrive. “How is it that Dhoni did not cry as De Villiers did when South Africa lost to New Zealand? Why was he smiling?” he demanded.
The subtitles that flashed on the Times Now screens showed lack of sensitivity. It was like jingoism that had come unstuck.
Even as Dhoni was addressing the post-match press conference, Time Now was demanding:
“Should Dhoni give up captaincy after this semi-final disaster?”
The channel concluded that “Dhoni’s captaincy was not aggressive,” and slammed him with sub-titles such as:
“Tame India hands back the cup”
“India disgraced at Sydney”
“Did over confident batsmen mess up the run chase”
“First real test and we flop”
The “well informed” channel editors even knew why Shikhar Dhawan got out. According to the channel, “Dhawan played a needless shot and got caught at deep cover”.
Another TV channel, ABP News, posed this dramatic question:
“Desh Ka Spna Kisne Toda” (Who has broken the country’s dream?)
Headlines Today showed images of a dozen-odd fans in Kanpur burning posters of Indian cricketers, and smashing a TV set. The images continued to be broadcast as Rajdeep Saresai, the Channel’s star anchor, repeatedly asked “Is this over-reaction because of the media hype that preceded the semi-final?”
The answer is yes. The Indian broadcast media (read news channels) lacks sense of balance. Any event, and they go into an overdrive. They read meanings into every event, hype every incident, dramatize every statement and turn news into infotainment.
It is indeed a great pity that Dhoni and his men had to suffer such degrading treatment. After all, one team had to win. It happened to be Australia today.
Why did the media forget the seven wins on a trot? Suddenly, those wins became meaningless. They were against “weak” teams.
When the main “challenge” came, Team India “crumbled,” lamented the channels.
The TV anchors, of course forgot that till yesterday they were touting these as “great wins”.
The news channels must show some responsibility, and consistency. They must look at issues in perspective instead of letting their personal views run wild.
In contrast, it was heartening to hear cricket fans in Sydney showing greater understanding of the game. They refused to be baited by loaded questions from the cricket reporters that channels had stationed in Australia.
Even Australian cricket fans were all praise for Dhoni.
So what is wrong with Indian TV channels and its anchors? Maybe, instead of doing a post-mortem of the match, they should do a post-mortem of their post-match analysis.