I didn’t see it. Neither did I see the 175* by Kapil Dev during the 1983 World Cup against Zimbabwe after India was tottering at 17 for 4.

And I rate both the misses on the same scale. Missing to watch Ganguly make 98 especially when Krishnamachari Srikkanth described the knock on CNN-IBN as ‘He (Ganguly) was in full flow’ is a great miss. Ganguly is a treat to watch when he gets going on Indian pitches. And as Dravid says he set India up for victory. Well, maybe. But I didn’t see it.

BCCI, in it’s penchant to make money, must have forgotten to include pre-qualification clauses in its bid to sell off the television rights to the highest bidder. I can imagine the widening of the eyes of the BCCI’s officials as soon as they saw Neo sports bid at USD 612 million (approx Rs. 2,700 crores)!

I was under the impression that the primary responsibility of BCCI was to be accountable to the fans of cricket of this country. And what do they end up doing? Make money and deny the fans access to some brilliant fireworks display. I am seriously thinking of invoking RTI (Right to Information Act) on the entire process of awarding these bids. How can one not include one simple line to the effect that “The channel, to which the producer sells the rights, should have access to atleast so many homes in India through cable TV or otherwise”. Another substitute (in the case that the channel doesn’t have the desirable reach) could be, “The producer agrees to feed-sharing with Prasar Bharti on a mutually agreeable revenue-sharing basis”.

I think it’s fair to give Doordarshan, however bad their quality of telecast and commentary might be, 25% of the revenue because of its reach. Reaching all those rural areas where cricket is enjoyed for all its worth is indeed something and Doordarshan can be given that credit.

But coming to this added condition of “encrypting the signal” that Nimbus has added now, it is surprising. First of all, I ain’t sure if Doordarshan has the capability to understand what encryption is being talked about here and why this demand all of a sudden? Second and final point, I don’t think that Doordarshan can do any form of encryption at all! The I & B Ministry is planning to introduce a law to change the rules of the game. Instead I think the better idea would be to bring BCCI to understand it’s role and responsibilities!

Coming back to the topic, was reading up on cricinfo about the first ODI. And liked this description of Chanderpaul’s innings here:

He (Ganguly) didn’t end as the top-scorer – Shivnarine Chanderpaul, crab-like in technique but pitbull-like in his ability to fight, stood atop a batting mountain. Raging against the dying light, he refused to give up the fight and played what both Brian Lara and Rahul Dravid termed was “one of the best innings while chasing”. Chanderpaul himself put it alongside the 150 he’d clattered against South Africa at East London.

I would go with Ramesh Powar instead of Ajit Agarkar from the next ODI. To hell with the winning-combination-should-not-be-disturbed theory, I think that bad-players-should-be-dropped theory more! Bringing back Sehwag for the Sri Lanka series would be a good idea. He has justified the call by performing well in the domestic season with a century in the only match he got to play. But the point is, whom will I bring him in place of? Even Yuvraj is due to claim his place back. It will be interesting to see whom we drop for the WC!