Voices That Matter

‘Football in Print Media’

In conversation with Shahid Judge, a senior correspondent at the Indian Express covering sports; NandaKumar Marar, football reporter at the Hindu and Anil Dias, sports correspondent at The Times Of India.  

The point of discussion being the amount of print media space given to Indian football.

Shahid Judge
Source: Google

Shahid Judge believes that major football viewership is dominated by the International games as compared to Indian football.  The readers have a huge inclination to read about derby’s and much awaited clash between the international heavyweights rather than an I-League or ISL match.  According to him, the most important thing is to create a new football culture, a culture like Germany which is solid from the core.  He accepts, to some extent, that it is the responsibility of the newspapers to give a considerable space to Indian games for the readers to know more about the Indian state of football.  But newspapers do have their limitations and they can only write what the reader needs, so a good balance of responsibility and limitations must be managed judiciously.  Judge says that television helps the print media quite extensively.  He explained it simply by mentioning that some of the big names should be given air time or maybe on social media and interact directly with their fans.  This creates a buzz which makes the fans read next day’s edition of the paper.  

“India is not a sporting country.” 

Judge strongly believes that it’s a long walk before we could be called a sporting country.  Recent in flow of funds and rise of franchise has a lot going on in the background in presumption of promoting a particular sport. Corporates have started using football, kabaddi, cricket, Hockey and other sports to promote their own brand. There’s talk about the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and how these corporate entities are evading taxes by owning various sports teams in the country.  Working for Indian Express, Judge explains that people want to read more than match reports.  Therefore players need to engage more with the spectators and fans.  

“Journalists don’t take anything on face value”.  

Judge shares an interesting anecdote.  One of his colleagues was covering Sri Lanka against West Indies which happened to be the final test of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.  Mahela got out soon in their partnership.  Mahela went to kumar and bowed in front of him as it was the last time they were playing together. But it wasn’t on television, only people present on spot were able to witness it.  Print media has their own space amongst readers and Indian football will have to earn it, reiterates Judge.  

Nandakumar Marar
Source: Google

                                                

Nandakumar Marar, a football reporter at The Hindu, believes that there is always a particular sport which dominates other sports, especially in print media since the space allotted is very limited.  In India, it is obviously cricket that grabs all the headlines.  But according to Marar there is a reason why cricket holds the upper hand.  BCCI (Board Of Control for Cricket In India) must be credited for it.  The organised way in which BCCI conducts and governs the proceedings throughout the country is an achievement in itself.  What the AIFF (All India Football Federation) has failed to do is to send a strong message across the country that football is a sport to reckon with. 

Marar holds a strong opinion, “ If any sports authority conducts its activities even 5% like the BCCI does, it will be a different ball game all together.”

He takes an example of India’s tour of Australia. At the end of both days of the first test match in Adelaide Oval a different player attended the press conference therefore giving a different perpsective to each day’s play. After scoring a marvelous ton, Cheteshwar Pujara was sent in by the team to attend the press conference, while it was Ravichandran Ashwin the next day.  So this helps the reporters write a different angle given by two different players.  While taking an example of the ISL match between Mumbai City FC and Chennaiyan FC in Mumbai recently, the coaches of both teams attended the pre match and post match press conferances. This is what Marar feels should change. AIFF should take control and throw the players into the pool with the journalists.  The effects are relative as it brings out the best insights possible and readers read about the first hand experience of a player on the pitch as they prefer a player talking about a particular play rather than a coach. 

But Marar feels that all is not lost as Indian football has taken huge strides.  The change of rule of 6 foreign players and 5 Indians to 5 foreign players and 6 Indians has been very well appreciated by the print media since it gives big possibilities to journalists to write about Indian players.

Anil Dias
Source: Google

Anil Dias, sports correspondent and copy editor at the Times Of India, believes that a good match would automatically earn its place in print media.  Whether it’s an International match or a domestic tie, a reader and football follower would love to read about a good match.  On being asked about the competition from social media, he feels that print media has its own space and no matter how quickly an article is published online, newspaper and print media in general always gives a different angle and in depth analysis of an event or a match.  But what dictates terms is the reader.  An article would always go into print if that’s what the reader wants and since there are space limitations, not every event would make it to print.  And that is where cricket dictates terms.