Have you been watching the India – England cricket matches on DD or on Sahara One? It doesn’t really matter as both channels are doing a pathetic job. Almost every over you miss the first ball as you are still viewing an ad while poor Pathan or Harbhajan is bowling his heart out to try and entertain you.
The last ball is actually even funnier as the batsman hits the ball to a fielder and as soon as the fielder touches the ball and it seems like there’s no run, you get an ad. So if there’s a runout or an overthrow happening in the background, the channel doesn’t think it’s that important for you to watch it live.
It’s painful that the channels are getting away with this and holding the nation to ransom. Cricket being the only popular sport in India, millions of Indians have no choice but to bear the torture.
Isn’t it part of the BCCI’s job to ensure that the channels stick to certain telcast standards? The administrators of the richest cricket board in the world are so busy with petty politics, grabbing power and ad money that they have no time for the game or its fans.
Cricket fans just don’t matter in India. Pack them into a stadium like a can of sardines with no water, no food, no shade and they will still pay to get to the stadium. Provide pathetic coverage on TV and the fans will accept it.
I had written about this to every Doordarshan admin email id I could find on the net and cced it to IndianTelevision.com. Of course no one ever replied.
Recently Zee grabbed the rights to some future cricket series. That’s just more bad news. As apart from ESPN-Star with Harsha Bhogle, Sunil Gavaskar… the other channels are just plain incompetent when it comes to broadcasting cricket matches.
So what I hope this blog will do is that you the reader will also bombard the channels with mails / phone / fax whatever and let them know that you are displeased. Below is a list of email and phone numbers that you can use. I have already written to most of the emails stated below. Don’t expect a reply but in all probability your mail will at least be read. Or just call the channel office.
** Indian Television Dot Com Pvt.Ltd.
317/318/319, Kuber Complex, Opp. Laxmi Ind. Estate, New Link Road, Andheri(W), Mumbai-53, India.
Email : television@vsnl.com, webmaster@indiantelevision.com.
Telephone: 91-22-26730660, 26730659, 26740642, 26740643
Fax: 91-22-26740644
** Sahara ONE
http://www.sahara-one.com/contactus.html
feedback@sahara-one.com
** Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
http://mib.nic.in/informationb/contactus/contact.asp
** Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI)
Apparently they do not have an official website. Crazy but true. The politician infested body doesn’t have the time to create a useful website for the public.
** STAR TV INDIA
New Delhi
1st Floor, Central Wing, Thapar House
124 Janpath, New Delhi 110001, India
Tel: (91 11) 5249 4900
Fax: (91 11) 5104 9490
Website: www.star.co.in
** ESPN STAR
http://www.espnstar.com/corporate/contactus/corpo_contactus.html
** ZEE Sports
REGISTERED OFFICE
Zee Sports Limited
Continental Bldg, 135, Dr. Annie Besant Road,
Worli Mumbai 400 018 INDIA
Tel: (+91 22) 5697 1234
CORPORATE OFFICE
Zee Sports Limited
FC 18, Sector 16 A Film City
NOIDA UP 201 301 INDIA
Tel: (+91 120) 248 8101
FAX: (+91 120) 248 8110
info@zeesports.co.in
** Doordarshan
Download an Excel Sheet from http://www.ddindia.gov.in/Information/Contact+Us and you will get phone numbers and eail addresses to all DD centers across India. Note that their multiple sheets in the Excel file.
I dont think sending mails to them would be of any use. May be we will get a Mail delivery Failure as a response to the mails we send :-). The DVR / TiVo culture has not yet caught our nation. May be then we can expect some relief from the unsolicited stuff pushed on to us.
I dont think sending mails to them would be of any use. May be we will get a Mail delivery Failure as a response to the mails we send :-). The DVR / TiVo culture has not yet caught our nation. May be then we can expect some relief from the unsolicited stuff pushed on to us.