When the cricket series between New Zealand and India started two weeks ago, fans trying to catch the game in the office snapped on their computers and smartphones to catch the ball-by-ball text description of the action. Over the last decade, more than a dozen apps and sites -- Cricbuzz and ESPNcricinfo among them -- have emerged to provide instant updates to fans without access to TV sets. But this time, something was different: the feed was coming in about 15 minutes late.
This time lag was due to legal action by Multi-Screen Media, which owns the television channel Sony Six on which the matches are being aired. As the official broadcasters of the series in the Indian subcontinent, the company had obtained a Delhi High Court order requiring cricket portals and radio channels to get a licence if they wanted to offer live text and audio commentary online. Portals that refused to pay the Rs 10 lakh licence fee have to delay their commentary feed by five overs, the court ruled.
To many fans, having to get delayed information seemed very unfair. More importantly, the High Court order imperils the 80-year-old tradition of live ball-by-ball commentary in the subcontinent. Few portals can afford the fee. So far, only ESPNcricinfo, Wisden India and Yahoo seem to have bought the licence.
Live cricket commentary was first heard in the subcontinent in 1934 during the Bombay Quadrangular -- a tournament played between teams representing the Hindus, the Muslims, the Parsis and the Europeans. (A couple of years later, a fifth team was added, called the Rest, turning the tournament into the Bombay Pentangular). Providing the commentary was a man who went on to become the voice of Indian cricket. All India Radio had signed on a young Parsi journalist named AFS Talyarkhan, who brought to cricket broadcasting a "rich, fruity voice and a fund of anecdotes", KN Prabhu, the noted cricket writer, once said.
Added historian Ramachandra Guha, in his book 'A Corner of a Foreign Field', "His self-control was superhuman, for he would speak without interruptions (except for lunch and tea)." Talyarkhan’s broadcasts, wrote one reviewer, were “firm, full of life, filled with the scent of playing fields”. Talyarkhan was, indisputably, the grandfather of cricket commentary in India.
Radio commentary was a magical art. The commentator had to recreate the excitement of the action on the field using only words. “You could not have any gaps in the broadcast,” said Raju Bharatan, a former AIR commentator who has been following the game for more than 50 years. “You couldn't not talk: you had to keep talking. You also could not keep giving the score all the time. You had to talk around the game and outside the game. You had to bring in innovation in your commentary.”
This wasn’t the only challenge. Bharatan added that it was difficult to identify foreign players because no one wore numbers or names on the jersey. “So, before the matches began, I used to go to the opposition teams' practice sessions and study the mannerisms of each player so that I could identify them,” he said. On radio, “it is very important to identify players instantly.”
The first televised cricket series in India was the West Indies tour of India in 1974-’75. Even though AIR continued with its broadcasts, Doordarshan had now entered the fray. Cricket lovers could now see the visuals for themselves, so the commentator’s job was to provide insights into the game and analyse it, rather than describing the action. TV commentators had it easier than the radio broadcasters, said Bharatan, who has worked in both media. On the radio “you had to keep speaking interestingly," he said. "There was no help from producers in the form of statistics and tables, etc."
The introduction of colour television after the 1982 Asian games and, a decade later, the entry of private TV channels changed the way cricket was broadcast in India. Unfortunately, the rapid privatisation of media hastened the death of the cricket broadcast on both AIR and Doordarshan. “Instead of reinventing themselves and competing, both the agencies slowly and steadily allowed the quality of coverage to drop,” wrote Narottam Puri, a former cricket journalist.
In February 1996, another tectonic shift occurred. With internet still in its infancy in India, Rediff.com began online ball-by-ball text commentary during the World Cup cricket tournament taking place in the subcontinent. “It wasn't a eureka moment or anything,” said Prem Panicker, one of the site’s earliest staffers. “With the World Cup kicking off after the launch of the site in January, we started with doing match reports. We were catering to very few in India and all our audiences were abroad and they had no access to the games. Our reports used to be 2,500 to 3,000-words long and very descriptive. We used to walk through every moment of the match.”
Soon enough, readers asked if Rediff could provide a report for each innings. “This was soon to increase to hourly reports and then to constant updates,” Panicker said. “By the time the second semi-final came around, we were providing ball-by-ball commentary.”
Of course, it wasn’t a smooth process. “Initially, there were a few bugs and the updates took a long time to be uploaded,” Panicker said. “But we learned along the way and re-launched the ball-by-ball updates after the World Cup. I could never imagine myself sitting in front of a screen for eight hours straight, but it worked. People were following our updates. So, the whole thing organically happened.”
In his near two decades of covering cricket on the internet, Panicker confesses that he never watched a single match from the press box in the stadium. Even today, internet journalists aren’t given press credentials. Despite this, Panicker realised that he preferred to sit in front of the TV in office and post updates. “I don't think it makes a difference,” he said. “I would have chosen to provide commentary watching television than going to the stadium even if I had an option because you can observe more on television than you can from the press box.”
Ironically, online commentary draws much from the antediluvian days of radio broadcasts. Just like it is on the air waves, commentary online has to be very descriptive since there are no visuals to engage the reader, Panicker said. Talyarkhan would probably approve.
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This time lag was due to legal action by Multi-Screen Media, which owns the television channel Sony Six on which the matches are being aired. As the official broadcasters of the series in the Indian subcontinent, the company had obtained a Delhi High Court order requiring cricket portals and radio channels to get a licence if they wanted to offer live text and audio commentary online. Portals that refused to pay the Rs 10 lakh licence fee have to delay their commentary feed by five overs, the court ruled.
To many fans, having to get delayed information seemed very unfair. More importantly, the High Court order imperils the 80-year-old tradition of live ball-by-ball commentary in the subcontinent. Few portals can afford the fee. So far, only ESPNcricinfo, Wisden India and Yahoo seem to have bought the licence.
Live cricket commentary was first heard in the subcontinent in 1934 during the Bombay Quadrangular -- a tournament played between teams representing the Hindus, the Muslims, the Parsis and the Europeans. (A couple of years later, a fifth team was added, called the Rest, turning the tournament into the Bombay Pentangular). Providing the commentary was a man who went on to become the voice of Indian cricket. All India Radio had signed on a young Parsi journalist named AFS Talyarkhan, who brought to cricket broadcasting a "rich, fruity voice and a fund of anecdotes", KN Prabhu, the noted cricket writer, once said.
Added historian Ramachandra Guha, in his book 'A Corner of a Foreign Field', "His self-control was superhuman, for he would speak without interruptions (except for lunch and tea)." Talyarkhan’s broadcasts, wrote one reviewer, were “firm, full of life, filled with the scent of playing fields”. Talyarkhan was, indisputably, the grandfather of cricket commentary in India.
Radio commentary was a magical art. The commentator had to recreate the excitement of the action on the field using only words. “You could not have any gaps in the broadcast,” said Raju Bharatan, a former AIR commentator who has been following the game for more than 50 years. “You couldn't not talk: you had to keep talking. You also could not keep giving the score all the time. You had to talk around the game and outside the game. You had to bring in innovation in your commentary.”
This wasn’t the only challenge. Bharatan added that it was difficult to identify foreign players because no one wore numbers or names on the jersey. “So, before the matches began, I used to go to the opposition teams' practice sessions and study the mannerisms of each player so that I could identify them,” he said. On radio, “it is very important to identify players instantly.”
The first televised cricket series in India was the West Indies tour of India in 1974-’75. Even though AIR continued with its broadcasts, Doordarshan had now entered the fray. Cricket lovers could now see the visuals for themselves, so the commentator’s job was to provide insights into the game and analyse it, rather than describing the action. TV commentators had it easier than the radio broadcasters, said Bharatan, who has worked in both media. On the radio “you had to keep speaking interestingly," he said. "There was no help from producers in the form of statistics and tables, etc."
The introduction of colour television after the 1982 Asian games and, a decade later, the entry of private TV channels changed the way cricket was broadcast in India. Unfortunately, the rapid privatisation of media hastened the death of the cricket broadcast on both AIR and Doordarshan. “Instead of reinventing themselves and competing, both the agencies slowly and steadily allowed the quality of coverage to drop,” wrote Narottam Puri, a former cricket journalist.
In February 1996, another tectonic shift occurred. With internet still in its infancy in India, Rediff.com began online ball-by-ball text commentary during the World Cup cricket tournament taking place in the subcontinent. “It wasn't a eureka moment or anything,” said Prem Panicker, one of the site’s earliest staffers. “With the World Cup kicking off after the launch of the site in January, we started with doing match reports. We were catering to very few in India and all our audiences were abroad and they had no access to the games. Our reports used to be 2,500 to 3,000-words long and very descriptive. We used to walk through every moment of the match.”
Soon enough, readers asked if Rediff could provide a report for each innings. “This was soon to increase to hourly reports and then to constant updates,” Panicker said. “By the time the second semi-final came around, we were providing ball-by-ball commentary.”
Of course, it wasn’t a smooth process. “Initially, there were a few bugs and the updates took a long time to be uploaded,” Panicker said. “But we learned along the way and re-launched the ball-by-ball updates after the World Cup. I could never imagine myself sitting in front of a screen for eight hours straight, but it worked. People were following our updates. So, the whole thing organically happened.”
In his near two decades of covering cricket on the internet, Panicker confesses that he never watched a single match from the press box in the stadium. Even today, internet journalists aren’t given press credentials. Despite this, Panicker realised that he preferred to sit in front of the TV in office and post updates. “I don't think it makes a difference,” he said. “I would have chosen to provide commentary watching television than going to the stadium even if I had an option because you can observe more on television than you can from the press box.”
Ironically, online commentary draws much from the antediluvian days of radio broadcasts. Just like it is on the air waves, commentary online has to be very descriptive since there are no visuals to engage the reader, Panicker said. Talyarkhan would probably approve.