Shame on Indian Media.

Middle of the week, we talk about cricket!

Nope this isn't about Ganguly. There is already so much said and written about Dada that even mentioning the URLs will eat up as much space as this post. This is about the Indian media, a bunch of swines who can twist and turn words and change the entire context and message behind the celebrity words. And balls to Indian cricket crazy junta, feeding on the daily saas-bahu drama, hoping for the same from the Indian cricket team!

What actually happened - I don't know what happened between the coach and the captain, but as it came out recently, apparently it was just a "frank discussion about Indian cricket's present and future". Ganguly, bloated after a century (let's not get into the favorable batting conditions and weak bowling attack), told Harsha Bhogale (about one-sixth of humanity glued to the TV set) - "I can tell you that before this match I was asked to step down as captain. So it was an extra determination that I found today (source)". And within 10-20 minutes of this revelation, the news channels were buzzing - "Chappell-Ganguly aamne-saamne","Ganguly Chappell se naaraaz"! Next day the newspapers had Chappell-Ganguly "feud" on the main page. Various retired/present cricketers were consulted for what they think about this. Lines were drawn deciding the authority with a captain and that with a coach. Jumping to conclusions, aren't we? Now, have a look at what Jayasuriya said -

To the disbelief of some, he had admitted that what kept him going for so long was the fear of being dropped from the team. He said that whenever he had a string of failures, the fear of the chop made him work harder at his game. "You've got to have that kind of fear in you if you want to succeed at this level," he said. "Otherwise you cannot come this far." (source)

I never heard any hue and cry raised over that!

Next, it seems Ganguly and few teammates left to some wildlife resort while Chappell and some team members decided to stay back/leave for next venue. The media exaggerated this too, portraying it as a clear rift between the captain and the coach. The team is declared to be divided. Newspapers and websites are poured with speculations and opinions, clearly we Indians have loads of free time! And when finally Chappell decided to put a fullstop to all the horse-shit and released a written clarification, then again the media published it as "Chappell Bowled","Chappell lost to Ganguly". Get a life, suckers!

It's not as if it was all out of nothing, but it's the blowing things out of proportions that ticks me off. Of course, not all media channels are as pathetic. The websites and the 24-hours news channels screw it up most of the times, perhaps since they don't have the luxury of time, that the newspapers enjoy. Still, how fair is it to spice it up just to sell your news? Up yours, buggers!