Growing up watching Cricket on Doordarshan
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| India travelling to Pakistan and winning both the Test and ODI series was the highest point of the TV viewing experience for me as a child. |
These days after getting
free from the tight schedule of my work life, when I sift through three
different HD channels on my Television to catch the action of three different
cricket matches going on in three different parts of the world, I am often taken
back to the olden days. I was introduced to the sport when the 1999 Cricket World Cup was
beamed across our bedroom through the small Black and White television of ours
on Doordarshan. I probably had seen cricket before that but that match between
India and South Africa at Hove is the first I can remember having watched with
a love that has marked my relationship with the sport ever since.
I was a six-year-old then and Sourav Ganguly’s 97 in that match would become the first step in making him one of my most influential childhood heroes. India would go down fighting in the match to start their World Cup off on a wrong foot but by the end of the game, I knew that I had fallen in love with this game. Probably, it would not have been so had he reached the three-figure mark. Probably, it would not have been so had India managed to eke out a win which they were denied by a certain Jacques Kallis’ superlative effort in the chase.
But this piece is not about that World Cup or Sourav Ganguly or even my love for the sport in general. It’s about the small Black and White TV of mine on which I would watch the game for coming years and fall even deeper in love with it. After the World Cup, the six-year-old brain of mine came to understand the dynamics of the distribution of broadcasting rights of cricket matches. It wasn’t that difficult to understand then as it is now with a multitude of channels warring over rights of cricket broadcast from different countries. Because I only had to contend with the simple knowledge that Doordarshan, which is the national broadcaster and the only channel that my Television would show, would only show ODIs played in India and the matches from ICC tournaments. For matches held in other countries, I had several generous people in my neighborhood, especially Banerjee uncle, who’d call me to watch the matches at their place. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. I remember watching Sachin Sourav pile on 193 in Jo’burg sitting alongside him as well as seeing India getting demolished for 54 against Sri Lanka. For all his generosity, Banerjee Jethu, who passed away a few years later, remains a very special part of my childhood memories.
Things with Test matches would, however, get a little complicated. There would be Live telecast of Test matches from 9:30 to 11:00 after which live-action would resume from 3:30 in the afternoon till the end of day’s play. Being an addict that I was, I would conspire to not get out of my bed before 9:30 so as to ensure that the first thing I open my eyes to is the first ball of the day.
That was obviously on the weekends. On the weekdays, I would just simply choose to miss school. Choosing between a day of school and one and a half-hour of cricket to begin the day with was hardly a difficult choice for me to make. And on days when my family would see through my excuses and manage to send me to school, my whole day in the school would go in mentally picturing the match in my head. It was not an era of smartphones and it was the toughest test of patience for me to go on hours without knowing the score. On some days, I would try to squeeze out information from the bus driver during the recess and then wait for the rest of the day in school for it to come to an end so I could rush back home and at least get to know the score.
Mind you, coming back home was only half the job done as I still had to wait a good hour or so to catch the live action which could begin as abruptly as anything. Till then I had to contend with following the live score in the news slugs. The action that had been missed between 11:00 to 3:30 would be eagerly waited for in the Highlights that would be shown from 11:00 to 12:00 at night. India’s away tours were more difficult to follow. There was no live-action to follow on Television and I would keep coming back to watch the news. Earlier, the slugs would only tell the score which meant that there was no way of knowing who were the batsmen dismissed and who were there on the crease. I remember having celebrated the 2004 Adelaide Test win after following DD News the entire day – for the score on the news slug, of course.
The most difficult to follow were the games held in West Indies. They would begin really late at night and I would be on my bed sleeping when the lunch would be taken by the players. Even newspapers the next day would carry the report about the first session of play. So, it was just not enough. The bug of cricket would bother me throughout the night. Result? The first thing I would do upon waking up would be to watch the news and get to know the score.
One of the best moments of my growing up years, and I am not kidding, was when after a long tussle between Ten Sports and DD, it was decided that DD would be allowed to telecast the matches from the Indo-Pak series from 2004. It was a long-drawn battle and for months, there was uncertainty whether the matches would be telecasted on DD. I had goosebumps while waiting for Shoaib Akhtar to deliver the first ball of the series to Sachin Tendulkar. And what a series it was to watch.
In the subsequent years, the TV changed from a black and white to a colored one but DD still remained. 2008 brought Indian Premier League and by that time I had grown up to understand that unlike the India-Pak series of 2004, there was no way IPL would ever come to DD. In 2009, after my Boards exams got over, I pleaded to my father to get cable for the two months of IPL, a wish I was duly granted by an equally massive cricket lover that my father is. Sadly, though, the reason to follow IPL - Ganguly and KKR – had such a torrid time that I wasted no time in asking my father to switch back to DD. Alas! Little did I know that more than my IPL, it was the daily soaps that would have such an impact on my family that they would never switch back to DD again post that summer of 2009.
And that’s how my tryst with DD came to an end. Looking back, it was a very beautiful relationship that I can only appreciate in hindsight. Thank You, DD.
I was a six-year-old then and Sourav Ganguly’s 97 in that match would become the first step in making him one of my most influential childhood heroes. India would go down fighting in the match to start their World Cup off on a wrong foot but by the end of the game, I knew that I had fallen in love with this game. Probably, it would not have been so had he reached the three-figure mark. Probably, it would not have been so had India managed to eke out a win which they were denied by a certain Jacques Kallis’ superlative effort in the chase.
But this piece is not about that World Cup or Sourav Ganguly or even my love for the sport in general. It’s about the small Black and White TV of mine on which I would watch the game for coming years and fall even deeper in love with it. After the World Cup, the six-year-old brain of mine came to understand the dynamics of the distribution of broadcasting rights of cricket matches. It wasn’t that difficult to understand then as it is now with a multitude of channels warring over rights of cricket broadcast from different countries. Because I only had to contend with the simple knowledge that Doordarshan, which is the national broadcaster and the only channel that my Television would show, would only show ODIs played in India and the matches from ICC tournaments. For matches held in other countries, I had several generous people in my neighborhood, especially Banerjee uncle, who’d call me to watch the matches at their place. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. I remember watching Sachin Sourav pile on 193 in Jo’burg sitting alongside him as well as seeing India getting demolished for 54 against Sri Lanka. For all his generosity, Banerjee Jethu, who passed away a few years later, remains a very special part of my childhood memories.
Things with Test matches would, however, get a little complicated. There would be Live telecast of Test matches from 9:30 to 11:00 after which live-action would resume from 3:30 in the afternoon till the end of day’s play. Being an addict that I was, I would conspire to not get out of my bed before 9:30 so as to ensure that the first thing I open my eyes to is the first ball of the day.
That was obviously on the weekends. On the weekdays, I would just simply choose to miss school. Choosing between a day of school and one and a half-hour of cricket to begin the day with was hardly a difficult choice for me to make. And on days when my family would see through my excuses and manage to send me to school, my whole day in the school would go in mentally picturing the match in my head. It was not an era of smartphones and it was the toughest test of patience for me to go on hours without knowing the score. On some days, I would try to squeeze out information from the bus driver during the recess and then wait for the rest of the day in school for it to come to an end so I could rush back home and at least get to know the score.
Mind you, coming back home was only half the job done as I still had to wait a good hour or so to catch the live action which could begin as abruptly as anything. Till then I had to contend with following the live score in the news slugs. The action that had been missed between 11:00 to 3:30 would be eagerly waited for in the Highlights that would be shown from 11:00 to 12:00 at night. India’s away tours were more difficult to follow. There was no live-action to follow on Television and I would keep coming back to watch the news. Earlier, the slugs would only tell the score which meant that there was no way of knowing who were the batsmen dismissed and who were there on the crease. I remember having celebrated the 2004 Adelaide Test win after following DD News the entire day – for the score on the news slug, of course.
The most difficult to follow were the games held in West Indies. They would begin really late at night and I would be on my bed sleeping when the lunch would be taken by the players. Even newspapers the next day would carry the report about the first session of play. So, it was just not enough. The bug of cricket would bother me throughout the night. Result? The first thing I would do upon waking up would be to watch the news and get to know the score.
One of the best moments of my growing up years, and I am not kidding, was when after a long tussle between Ten Sports and DD, it was decided that DD would be allowed to telecast the matches from the Indo-Pak series from 2004. It was a long-drawn battle and for months, there was uncertainty whether the matches would be telecasted on DD. I had goosebumps while waiting for Shoaib Akhtar to deliver the first ball of the series to Sachin Tendulkar. And what a series it was to watch.
In the subsequent years, the TV changed from a black and white to a colored one but DD still remained. 2008 brought Indian Premier League and by that time I had grown up to understand that unlike the India-Pak series of 2004, there was no way IPL would ever come to DD. In 2009, after my Boards exams got over, I pleaded to my father to get cable for the two months of IPL, a wish I was duly granted by an equally massive cricket lover that my father is. Sadly, though, the reason to follow IPL - Ganguly and KKR – had such a torrid time that I wasted no time in asking my father to switch back to DD. Alas! Little did I know that more than my IPL, it was the daily soaps that would have such an impact on my family that they would never switch back to DD again post that summer of 2009.
And that’s how my tryst with DD came to an end. Looking back, it was a very beautiful relationship that I can only appreciate in hindsight. Thank You, DD.
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