Neglect cripples AIR cricket commentary
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
Ahmedabad: The Indian cricket board recently sold television and radio rights for a whopping Rs 2,000 crores for four years, from April 2010 to March 2014. But while all care is taken to providing top-class facilities for television commentary units at stadiums, the radio commentary, which reaches more than 95 percent of over 1.15 billion population of the country besides 16 other countries, continues to get a step-motherly treatment.
The plight of the radio commentators and scorers, who were on duty for the first India-Sri Lanka Test here, was an eye-opener. That they had to make do with a small room at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium was just a one of the many problems they face. There are many bigger issues to be resolved, but no one from Prasar Bharati or rights holders Nimbus Communications, seems to be paying any heed to them.
Negotiations between Prasar Bharati and Nimbus Communications on revenue sharing from radio, lack of basic facilities, late assignments to commentators and scorers/statisticians, huge disparity in payments to Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) commentators, scorers and statisticians are some of the issues that always crop up before a home series. No solution, however, seems in sight.
Sample this: the lone scorer at the first Test was paid Rs. 700 daily and the commentators Rs 1,620 per day, besides the Rs. 340 that each one got as daily allowance. In comparison, a scorer or a statistician on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) panel receives Rs. 5,000 per day while the one who keeps scores at any BCCI’s domestic tournament get Rs 3,000 daily. And if a BCCI panel scorer or statistician travels out of his home city he gets extra allowances.
The radio commentators’ fee was Rs. 1,200 until last year, before it was revised after a long time. “We do commentary for the love of the game, otherwise you don’t make anything out of the meagre payments in today’s expensive world,” a member of the AIR commentary unit said on condition of anonymity. “And, mind you, AIR is earning good revenues from cricket commentary as they are getting good sponsorship for Tests and ODIs.”
A radio commentator gets Rs. 340 as DA for second-rung city like Ahmedabad and he has to meet his food and lodging bills within this amount. For metros, it is Rs. 500.
There is also a huge disparity between AIR and Doordarshan commentators, though both are from the same Prasar Bharati family. A Doordarshan commentator who, for instance, covers an ITF Satellite Tournament gets Rs. 7,000 per day.
The ever-present uncertainty about radio commentary adds all the gloom. It was because of this dilly-dallying in deciding about the radio commentary for the ongoing three-Test series that the commentary team had to do without a statistician, a permanent fixture for an AIR commentary unit. The lone scorer had to make up for the statistician’s absence.
“We were much affected by the statistician’s absence. All this because we were told about the coverage of this Test only two days before it started on Monday,” said a member of the unit. “There is always this uncertainty about radio coverage of Tests and ODIs, and because of this we can’t even do our homework before matches.”
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
Ahmedabad: The Indian cricket board recently sold television and radio rights for a whopping Rs 2,000 crores for four years, from April 2010 to March 2014. But while all care is taken to providing top-class facilities for television commentary units at stadiums, the radio commentary, which reaches more than 95 percent of over 1.15 billion population of the country besides 16 other countries, continues to get a step-motherly treatment.
The plight of the radio commentators and scorers, who were on duty for the first India-Sri Lanka Test here, was an eye-opener. That they had to make do with a small room at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium was just a one of the many problems they face. There are many bigger issues to be resolved, but no one from Prasar Bharati or rights holders Nimbus Communications, seems to be paying any heed to them.
Negotiations between Prasar Bharati and Nimbus Communications on revenue sharing from radio, lack of basic facilities, late assignments to commentators and scorers/statisticians, huge disparity in payments to Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) commentators, scorers and statisticians are some of the issues that always crop up before a home series. No solution, however, seems in sight.
Sample this: the lone scorer at the first Test was paid Rs. 700 daily and the commentators Rs 1,620 per day, besides the Rs. 340 that each one got as daily allowance. In comparison, a scorer or a statistician on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) panel receives Rs. 5,000 per day while the one who keeps scores at any BCCI’s domestic tournament get Rs 3,000 daily. And if a BCCI panel scorer or statistician travels out of his home city he gets extra allowances.
The radio commentators’ fee was Rs. 1,200 until last year, before it was revised after a long time. “We do commentary for the love of the game, otherwise you don’t make anything out of the meagre payments in today’s expensive world,” a member of the AIR commentary unit said on condition of anonymity. “And, mind you, AIR is earning good revenues from cricket commentary as they are getting good sponsorship for Tests and ODIs.”
A radio commentator gets Rs. 340 as DA for second-rung city like Ahmedabad and he has to meet his food and lodging bills within this amount. For metros, it is Rs. 500.
There is also a huge disparity between AIR and Doordarshan commentators, though both are from the same Prasar Bharati family. A Doordarshan commentator who, for instance, covers an ITF Satellite Tournament gets Rs. 7,000 per day.
The ever-present uncertainty about radio commentary adds all the gloom. It was because of this dilly-dallying in deciding about the radio commentary for the ongoing three-Test series that the commentary team had to do without a statistician, a permanent fixture for an AIR commentary unit. The lone scorer had to make up for the statistician’s absence.
“We were much affected by the statistician’s absence. All this because we were told about the coverage of this Test only two days before it started on Monday,” said a member of the unit. “There is always this uncertainty about radio coverage of Tests and ODIs, and because of this we can’t even do our homework before matches.”
1 comment:
It is really sad. Thanks for highlighting this.
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