Clearly, those who are criticising the two are being more self-righteous than anything.
NEW DELHI: This is with reference to Avirook Sen’s article of August 12 titled “India’s cricket commentators”. It’s really surprising that after the reports of Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri being on the payroll of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), almost everybody is viciously targeting them. Before these revelations regarding Mr Gavaskar and Mr Shastri, there was hardly anyone in the media who was questioning their neutrality and now everyone is saying: ‘I told you so’.
I am not for a moment defending the BCCI or holding any brief for either of the two former players. The BCCI has since long being rightly accused of commercialising cricket at the expense of the fitness of players and quality of cricket being played. But the larger point is that if the BCCI appoints people to put forward their viewpoint then what’s wrong with that? Every organisation has their own PR guys and if the BCCI blows its own trumpet via Messrs Gavaskar and Shastri then it is very much entitled to do so.
In any case, former cricketers do not have the wherewithal to influence the opinion of a nation of a billion-plus cricket fans. The fact of the matter is that almost everyone in the media would have happily done the same job for the BCCI, and for probably far less money. Clearly, those who are criticising the two are being more self-righteous than anything.
Sonam Shyam
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2011.
