IPL- T20 Cricket seems to have captured even the Marathi TV. Now, besides showing the highlights of the matches played, we also see expert comments coming from the so called experts of the respective channel’s correspondents and sometimes comments coming in Hindi from former Indian cricketers, which are borrowed from their sister channels. Only exception being that of Kiran More and Chandu Borde , who were called upon by one of the channels, to offer their views during a cricket match series.

This is really surprising, as we do have plenty of former cricketers residing in places like Mumbai and Pune, who would be more than happy to offer their expert comments on the day’s play. One can understand about the busy schedule of Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Chandrakant Pandit and Praveen Amre but there are many other veterans who would be more than happy to offer their views and that would certainly make the news on cricket more interesting.

One need not go in search of their availability, as most of them are available in Sportsfield, located at Worli Sea face, Mumbai. At least to name a few of them who would be able to speak on such occasions are former test cricketers like Ajit Wadekar, Bapu Nadkarni, Umesh Kulkarni, Jatin Paranjape and so on. And in Pune, we have Hrishikesh kanitkar, besides Mr. Borde and so on. One can also think of inviting former Mumbai and Maharashtra Ranaji trophy players like Padmakar Shivalkar, Amol Mujumdar and others.

Whether it is reviewing a film, drama or sports events, it is very necessary to have an expert who has wide experience in that field who has been a participant or a critic in the past . This would also help millions of viewers to understand that particular area or field well. It is almost like inviting well known veteran social activists and Writers/ Journalists to comment on the current political situation in the state and in our country .

The IPL craze has also affected the theatre business as our own Marathi films, which had picked up good business in the first quarter also witness a sudden drop of audience which even Bollywood films faced during the past two weeks. Many film makers have therefore postponed the release of their films till end of April, as they very well know that their business would suffer during this period.

Now, talking about other Marathi TV news, there wasn’t much about investigative stories. Only news that invited the attention was that of SSC answer papers wrapped in Post office parcels, lying unattended at Latur ST bus stand. There hasn’t been any progress on the investigation of the Pune German bakery blast even after completion of one month and only news that TV channels covered was that of Pune Police commissioner blaming the common man for the lapse and Pune people showing their solidarity by demonstrating against such attacks and slow progress of investigation.

by Ulhas Shirke © MMW