8 interesting facts about cricbuzz
Ziaur Rahman's role in the formation of the Bangladesh Cricket Board was crucial, writes Sanjay Manjrekar in a chat with Cricbuzz editor in chief Sanjay Manjrekar and managing editor Sandeep Mehra.
Cricbuzz is celebrating it's 25th anniversary with a special set of interviews, profile pieces and videos in what we believe is a tremendous celebration of cricket in this country.
In this first instalment, we share an engaging conversation with the editor in chief and managing editor Sandeep Mehra and ask Sanjay Manjrekar to reveal some interesting facts about cricbuzz.
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| Sanjay Manjrekar to reveal some interesting facts about cricbuzz | 8 interesting facts |
Table of content
- First' Experience
- So how did you build up cricket in the sub continent?
- What is your take on that short of a media boycott of Indian cricket?
- Can you pinpoint a reason behind that transformation?
- How do you think this transformation will pan out,even now?
- Can't the print media survive, can't the newspaper just raise prices?
- Do you think that the power structure of India are actually equipped to deal with this kind of change?
- Why are our cricketer administrator falling us?
1. 'On my first day at Cricbuzz, I am literally introduced to a computer, it is that simple'
How easy was it to establish a brand in a country that didn't even have cable television?
There was a very small and limited segment of cricket fans in the world, we were only getting about 20% of that interest. It is still the biggest sport in the country, in terms of interest it has retained.
No one really cared much about the game except for a few who followed West Indies cricket and India cricket. The BCCI was quite happy with the kind of coverage they got. They had a free run in terms of editorial, everything was ready to go.
They had 10 international players in their team, they had a select group of juniors, and a lot of money. The bowlers never got their due and this was something we were keen to address, which is why in the first two years we were very proactive in providing content for the bowlers, particularly pacers.
Because we wanted them to get their due and help them get discovered in the West Indies where they would normally get stuck. But unfortunately we never got support from the board, and there was hardly any support from the press.
2. So how did you build up cricket in the sub-continent?
Honestly, it is a difficult market to penetrate, in terms of cricket writing, especially in the sub-continent. For a lot of people, writing about Indian cricket is their livelihood.
It is a very special, a very emotional, niche market, which probably wasn't tapped a lot. In India, not many people know how cricket has grown, how it has become this money spinning industry, so not many were willing to buy the argument that we should be trying to get them to look beyond Indian cricket.
Even outside India, not many would buy the fact that the players of the West Indies are just as good as the Indian players. They couldn't buy that argument, and understandably so. And a lot of criticism came, you'd get comparisons with other newspapers.
"You people just talk about cricket, who do you know in politics, who do you know in social services?" These are questions that came to our minds. But nevertheless, we persisted, we continued to do our own thing and slowly got the right people on board.
But it was not easy, it took many years, even though I must say it has been a very successful journey.
3. But what is your take on that sort of a media boycott of Indian cricket?
I don't know what the parameters are of what is considered a boycott and what isn't. If a journalist buys a newspaper for a commercial reason, whether he is a Cricket writer or not, it is the duty of a journalist to write about the things he is interested in, he is not forced.
Whether people agree with it or not, he is supposed to do his job, it is his duty. If he is paid to write about cricket, then he should write about cricket.
And of course, for many in the media, it is a very small way to make money. It is a small sacrifice, it is something they make, but it is not their career.
It is not the only income source for them. I understand why, and I think the BCCI, in the initial years, had no choice. They were a commercial entity with massive ambitions and didn't want to alienate a large part of the population.
It didn't help that it was only a handful of people who were paying to read the paper, this was the basis for a boycott.
But I have seen an incredible transformation in a very short period of time in how the media in India is much more educated now, a lot of new players and new ideas have come in.
4. Can you pinpoint a reason behind that transformation?
Probably the advent of the internet has helped with a lot. That, and the fact that the BCCI, and the sports media, probably did not know what to do, how to deal with it.
They hadn't really started thinking about it. The world of digital and the media of digital had not really started there. So I think things have started changing very fast. It's also a question of confidence and belief.
Journalists who have written in the past and written about cricket, they now understand what it is to deal with this online phenomenon.
They understand what it means to read their emails, and to be on Twitter and Facebook, and know how to deal with it, and get the best out of it. So I think they've started seeing the possibilities, and they have started following the opportunities that are out there.
5. How do you think this transformation will pan out, even now?
The transformation is going to be good, it is going to be way beyond what we ever expected. I was born in the 80s and I was told that the world of media was always about "cashless." Now it is going to be about "cyber."
It is going to be all about digital. And I think this is the right thing to happen. I can't understand why the media, the print media, has not been able to adapt to this new era, which is going to come in from January 2016.
I still have a lot of time left, so I am not worried about that. But I am a little worried, I think we are now going to be in an unbelievable battle with the internet.
6. But can't the print media survive, can't the newspapers just raise prices?
I think you cannot expect newspapers to survive. Obviously, there are some people in the media who think they are going to succeed.
And I think they have a greater chance than they realize, especially in the first year, when everybody comes in and everybody gets their feet wet. But you can't expect people to sell subscriptions, to make big money.
If you look at the average revenue of a newspaper, it is negligible. So unless the content is profitable, the newspapers won't be profitable. In that sense, there is an inevitability that newspapers are going to fold.
It doesn't mean there won't be any newspapers or any newspapers will not be in existence. It is just going to be in the context of the print media industry in India.
Newspapers are surviving today because of advertisers. There are few things, like news channels, which have started getting massive revenue. Now, of course, it is speculative, so let us wait for a few years, see how it goes.
7. Do you think that the power structures in India are actually equipped to deal with this kind of change?
Well, there are very good examples, in the past, when they came up. All of the reforms that we've seen in the banking sector over the past four years were made possible because of the reforms by the Congress party government in 1991, when a bunch of journalists, including me, decided that banks can be fixed and banks can be reformed.
We didn't wait for a government to do it. We brought about a radical change. And I am of the opinion that the same kind of leaders, people like Lal Krishna Advani and Manmohan Singh, are the people to be trusted in this new environment. You know, they have the skills, they understand how things work, they understand media, they understand what needs to be done to help strengthen this.
8. Why are our cricket administrators failing us?
Probably the biggest challenge is to empower the audience. I have no problem with the players, and the support staff, and all that. But we have a responsibility to the players to make sure they know how to present themselves, and how to connect with the fans. And I think, at the moment, they are not.
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