Hindustan Times
Story we all missed
It’s easy to get carried away with cricket in India. You will never be accused of doing too much. No one has ever told an editor: you overdid the cricket story.
When M S Dhoni’s men were playing West Indies on Wednesday, the world, including everyone in the Hindustan Times newsroom, was watching Pakistan playing Australia.
And none of us had ever cheered the Pakistanis as we did that night. It was surreal – no one watched India’s match at all.
This in itself was news, wasn’t it?
I toyed with the idea of putting a story on Page One along these lines. What a story it was: Indians cheered, prayed for Pakistan.
Forgotten were 26/11, the many other terror strikes originating across the border and everything else that makes Pakistan such a bitter pill.
It was all for a selfish cause as you know. If Pakistan beat Australia, India would stand a chance of making it to the semis by beating West Indies.
Pakistan let down India in the end.
What a story, don’t you think? And it was happening in homes, pubs and public places across the country.
One-day internationals, ODIs as they are known, suddenly acquired a future. For long given up as a dying format, it popped back into life that night. Our newsroom had once again turned into a mini stadium with people hanging around television sets (there are quite few around).
As the camera panned on Australian captain Ricky Ponting, no one felt bad for him – he should be home with his team.
As the match played into the last overs, India and Pakistan were joined together by the same tension.
I called up my counterpart in Mumbai, Soumya, just the right person for this story. He agreed. It was a great story.
Small catch though: he was out of office, in a meeting.
Ah well. I could see the story slip out, just as it looked like getting better.
It was a terrific last over. Worked stopped in the newsroom.
Every ball and the replay were closely watched. And when Younis Khan wagged his finger at a wayward fielder, he did it for all of the sub-continent..
And then they lost.
Pakistan stayed in the semis, Australia went through and India crashed out. And with that ended an amazing night of cricket. Virat Kohli’s first Man of the Match prize quietly went into his family album and the record books, as also the fact that India beat West Indies.
We sent out a reporter to find out from Delhiites what they were saying about the match. And yes, it was the same story.
One person told our reporter he actually hummed the Pakistani national anthem when it was played at the start of the game.
Touching. But we kind of let the story slip, as the night progressed. We carried a short piece on people’s reactions but it was not the kind of story needed.
No paper or channel did the story.
A big miss, according to me. What do you think?
(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
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hmm…..missed a story….nt really….no doubt it was big news dat Indians were cheering fr no one bt pakistan dat too in cricket….bt we all knew n had a sense of it……n den d fact dat in d end Pakistan lost…no matter hw….actually killed ur story…..
had pakistan won den d case wd hav been entirely different…..n den surely it sd hav been ur lead story…
bt once d final nail in d coffin was struck n India thrown out of d champions trophy nthng else mattered to ny Indian fan…..n wen it comes to Indo-Pak cricket match i think if nt whole bt most of india is a fan…!!!!!!
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
don’t think so — the story didn’t die with pak’s defeat — it remained relevant despite it
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I did’nt quite understand the article for the last 1 year India is trying to corner Pakistan cricket trying its level best to isolate it, first it cancelled its own tour [Indian team was on schedule to play Pakistan in Jan. 2009] then advised Sri Lanka not to fill in India’s place and tour Pakistan, historically India Pakistan cricket boards have had better relations, this time India played an important role of taking world cup matches[ to be hosted in Pak] from Pakistan. Indian board also removed Pakistan from Future Tour Program [FTP] not giving any matches with Pakistan 2012 till 2020. According to you Pakistan let India down!!! Why should India expect anything from Pakistan given the way its treating them.
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 4th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
“According to you Pakistan let India down!!! Why should India expect anything from Pakistan given the way its treating them.”
this was supposed to be sarcastic
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The moments when India & Pakistan became one? - would have been an interesting story, and probably still can be a weekend piece.
As the joke goes, India gets united only on two occasions - either when at war with Pakistan, or when playing an international cricket match. But here, an enemy’s enemy is now a friend whereas they are actually supposed to be enemies?
How the cookie crumbles!! I would love to hear what our neighbour bashers have to say to this situation.
Hats off Yashpal, I do wish you had pursued your instinct and put it on page one!
But please see if you can put in a weekend piece?
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
will try anil
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I think you should have gone for it. Here in Bangalore also all of us were rooting for Pakistan. Strange, I thought too, but never thought of writing about it. Would have been nice if I had seen it in HT the next day. Would have made for a smashing Page 1 anchor.
But herein lies the lesson: You should trust your gut feeling.
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 4th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
i know, i should have gone for it. nice hearing from you ravi — next time, let’s exchange ideas real time. what do you say?
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Ravi Joshi Reply:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Sorry for replying after nearly a month. Will definitely do so. It will be great working together again, albeit from 2,000 km away.
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The storyline you had in mind would have made good reading. What did not was HT Dy Editor’s write-up in which he describes Dinesh Karthik playing a FORWARD DEFENSIVE SHOT to a RISING delivery. See how he lost the plot.
You just can’t play a forward defensive shot to a rising delivery, unless you believe frontal teeth have no business occupying the gum space and you look better without those. Whoever has played little bit of cricket knows the moment you see a rising delivery, you tend to rock back and try to fend it.
Moral of the story, those who doesn’t really follow the game, should not try writing it. More so when it’s a national daily. And if it’s too itching, as smarter souls do, it’s always better to avoid those technical mumbo-jumbo.
P.S. Your blog has a sincere undertone and that explains my occasional surfacing with an issue
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 4th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
you are always welcome som, and i look forward to your “occasional surfacing”
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two countries united over a game..not bad at all
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
yes, not bad at all
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A very sad state of affair. 3/4th of the public viewership is gone if India is not in the game. There are other sports (badminton, boxing, tennis, football) deserving headlines. They seldom get one !
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 4th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
they do, increasingly now than ever before — pankaj advani, vijendar singh, jyoti randhawa, bindra, somdev devvarman and the list goes on — whenever they win something, they are there among the headlines
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It was a good idea Yashwant, and it was done pretty nicely by Sambit Bal with a headline saying ‘India’s jigsaw lacks more than missing pieces’. It was also a story that I did in a different manner in my blog http://deepanjoshi.wordpress.com/….where it was done in long form as it has a small but dedicated cricket and tennis followers so the word limit is not an issue.
Thanks Som, I saw that front foot gem after reading your comment, and there is another one that you can read in my blog titled A Sad Ashen Pundit…
The moral of the story is also that the ‘Wrong is Right’ when the only thing that matters is who the boss is around here…
P.S. Yashwant, I have the same reason as Som to say something in your blog once in a while
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yashwant raj Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
always welcome to comment
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Sorry the URL above did not go properly, so it’s here again
http://deepanjoshi.wordpress.com/
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