Needed: young editors

I was amused to watch one of the nation’s most respected editors, Vinod Mehta, trash the new IPL cricket tamasha as the death of the longer form of the game, and ‘pure’ cricket as we know it. Speaking on a news channel chat show, Mehta pointed out that the BCCI, which is duty bound to maintain and nurture the game, is determined to take it down the tube.

Now, Mehta is a fine editor, but his views on the T20 games (which I am sure will find resonance with all the old-world editors), tells us how out of sync some of these exalted gents are with the young new India. Rather than sounding the death knell of the test matches, these peppy edited versions will not just revive interest in the sport, indeed they will save the game from certain demise.

Cos the truth is the new gen just does not have either the time or the inclination to sit through five bloody days of a single match (note the abysmal attendance in the stadia), and even paying undivided attention to a one-day match has become a tall ask. What T20 has done is to bring the otherwise long and winded sport to be on par with football and other popular games, in terms of the demands of time it makes on you. With each match over in three hours, suddenly, cricket will find a whole new bunch of fans, AND get the defectors back. And perhaps make it palatable even to non-cricketing nations like the US.

I have not yet watched IPL’s matches (they flag off tonight), but am one hundred per cent sure they will be a huge hit, especially with young adults and kids. And the raunchy pom pom girls and the festive atmosphere will add the dose of entertainment the game badly needs... poor Ms Mandira Bedi can only bring that much to the table with her noodle straps.

As for the test matches, they are certain to die in the coming future. So then why not let the sport live on, I ask.

Anyway, the larger point I’m making is that we constantly demand younger leaders in politics and other professions. Perhaps the time has come to expect the same of the media; very clearly, the oldies in the newsrooms are struggling to connect with the new India, its mindset and its attitude. No wonder both news weeklies, Outlook and India Today, have become immensely unreadable of late. Hope the bada money bag media proprietors are reading in!