'Initially the ad-breaks were strictly adhered to: in between overs, during drinks-break and dismissal of a batsman. Then the ad time increased, and cricket became what you saw between ads,' says M P Anil Kumar.
When I told him that I do not watch IPL matches, the expression of disbelief on his face had to be seen to be believed. The bemused man was none other than the editor-in-chief of Rediff.com
I started playing cricket in my alma mater (Sainik School, Kazhakootam, Kerala), and wore the school colours for two years. I was so passionate about cricket that despite the crammed day in the National Defence Academy and the Air Force, I would somehow steal morsels of the telecast or radio commentary to keep track of every match India played.
I still remember slithering out of a two-layered sleeping bag in the sub-ten-degree small hours of Leh to be ready to watch the first ball bowled at 4:30 am in an ODI between India and New Zealand played at Launceston (Tasmania) in February 1986.
Many colleagues gave up me as loony when I spent a good part of two days watching Mudassar Nazar and Qasim Umar plod, plod and plod, in one of the most boring matches in Test history -- India vs Pakistan, second Test at Faisalabad, October 1984.
Two things lessened my interest in watching cricket on the telly. The first turn-off was the match-fixing expose.
The second is the ad-infested, viewer-unfriendly telecast of the matches (ah, those were the days when Doordarshan telecasted the matches without commercials).
When I told him that I do not watch IPL matches, the expression of disbelief on his face had to be seen to be believed. The bemused man was none other than the editor-in-chief of Rediff.com
I started playing cricket in my alma mater (Sainik School, Kazhakootam, Kerala), and wore the school colours for two years. I was so passionate about cricket that despite the crammed day in the National Defence Academy and the Air Force, I would somehow steal morsels of the telecast or radio commentary to keep track of every match India played.
I still remember slithering out of a two-layered sleeping bag in the sub-ten-degree small hours of Leh to be ready to watch the first ball bowled at 4:30 am in an ODI between India and New Zealand played at Launceston (Tasmania) in February 1986.
Many colleagues gave up me as loony when I spent a good part of two days watching Mudassar Nazar and Qasim Umar plod, plod and plod, in one of the most boring matches in Test history -- India vs Pakistan, second Test at Faisalabad, October 1984.
Two things lessened my interest in watching cricket on the telly. The first turn-off was the match-fixing expose.
The second is the ad-infested, viewer-unfriendly telecast of the matches (ah, those were the days when Doordarshan telecasted the matches without commercials).
