@dvocable

The array of news papers, electronic channels, internet, radio and blogs that have emerged over the last decade has given national and international exposure to our cricketing heroes. Our cricketing celebrities are exposed day in and day out but what is more interesting is some of them have really become great spokespersons and are able to handle the media with lot of confidence and intelligent conversations. Do they undergo media training? I am not aware. Or has BCCI got a media manager who coaches them on the finer aspects of facing the media? I am not even sure if celebrity management companies are also imparting training on this aspect so that the brand they endorse is having a right connect and the equity of the brand is well protected. In case they are getting the assistance of the media manager, then that has really helped them and lifted the image of these cricketers.

No matter whether they speak in English or Hindi, it is the confidence with which they deliver matters. On that front, our skipper Dhoni has been improving by the day and the reply that he gave after the last test against England was really apt and powerful. He firstly thanked the English team for returning for the test match after the terrorist attack and secondly sent a clear message to the world that India will not buckle under such cowardly act of terrorism. I have been watching Dhoni from close quarters for the last one year and each time I observe him, he comes out as a thorough professional when he faces the media.

Handling the media has been so important these days as mind games are being played by the opponents before or after the matches. And you need to counter them with good strategy so that they don’t affect your game or the team’s performance. Few years back when South Africa was going through a bad patch, their board quickly appointed Ravi Shastri to coach them to handle the media pressures. So that’s the kind of importance one is attaching to media relations.

Speaking to media is an art and it will only come if one is coached and given professional advice. If you are on a winning spree, the confidence will drive you to speak well and handle the media with ease. It is during crisis and failures one may loose the confidence but if you are trained by a good media coach, you will be able to battle it well and take the media with complete confidence. I finally would like to conclude that handling media and speaking to them with the right tone and message will really help the team to play the role of great statesman and ambassadors for the nation in any part of the world.

Last night the Kings XI Punjab made another killing! Shaun Marsh produced what some would colloquially describe as giving a right walloping and Yuvraj Singh followed through with more arson on the pitch; the two are the cynosure of all eyes in the cricket world in India, the Commonwealth continents and many points further.

This wasn’t always the case, suddenly a team that was for long an underdog is making huge waves. The IPL analogy is no different, it came from nowhere and took over the house, and those in the marketing and PR fraternity who were watching the wind speed and its direction are smiling, while the laggards are now wringing their hands in furious frustration at the massive opportunity loss.

A few months have passed since the marketing and PR landscape got hijacked by IPL, the usual heavy-lids marketing and PR veteran, already bored to death with the monotony of the hot summer, mistook it for a flash in the pan, many weeks later it was still there refusing to go away like a bad nightmare, rocketing TRPs and bringing in eyeballs by the truck load for competition; the ones who got on the band wagon are laughing to the brand bank, the ones that did not have conceded defeat. The ’serial shock’ gave all channels a huge scare and the war moved from the pitch to the air waves as the IPL tsunami sucked all eyes to a single channel away from the staple ’soap and serial’ diet!

Team sponsorships that went a begging are now worth their weight in gold and next season; by all means, do please expect to see the phenomenon of inflation translate to cricket sponsorship. In these incredulous times of USD 130 for a barrel of crude oil, why should inflation be confined to steel, onions and cement?

The fight for eye balls has been won by mobile companies, banks and FMCG companies being the usual suspect that also ran and got some successes. The losers were car and bike companies, ringed in first by the RBI triggered, inflation killer, CRR measures, that squeezed the already flat credit situation. Across packed stadium; the howls of delight and screams of incredulity submerged the Bloomberg story reporting how this had been the lowest growth in the last 10 quarters for India.

As crude oil price insanity triggered troubling visions of more tax and ‘cess-upon-more-cess’ crowded my radar, the oil companies were slowly sinking and losses were being reported first time in the current quarters of these public sector behemoths. As ministries quibbled over customs, excise, luxury tax and oil stabilisation funds, the screams of cricket hooliganism in stadiums kept growing louder, so much more dignified than the marauding Chelsea club fans in England that would shame Genghis Khan but the days are not far! Welcome to the Indian version of the superbowl!

As stories got pitched to the print, television and online spaces and the pickled brain of the now smiling senior PR types picked up the sweet stink of plugs a headline or byte away, agencies were being whipped to leverage the sponsorship investment and brand types were churning websites and campaigns by the dime across outdoor, print and online; search or ad word. Here in this very fertile climate unnoticed a bevy of writers, television anchors and producers were taking birth.

In the text message histrionics of Shah Rukh Khan and Vijay Mallya’s tantrums, the hugs of Preity Zinta and the exploits of Ness Wadia with the Punjab Police hijacked dinner and tea time conversations across the homes and offices of the unsuspecting consumer in a heady brew, without alcohol, nicotine and caffeine. Healthy I thought!

In this entire din, the lessons have been many and things have changed forever in sports marketing and PR. The heady mix of entertainment, blaring team songs and not to forget the introduction of cheer leaders in a morality stricken nation, helped tone down changes that would have otherwise not gone down well.

I am talking about the erosion of nationality as the basis for cricket teams. Questions about how ex-team mates will reconcile their fury and belligerence once IPL is over and things are back to normal for the Indian, Sri Lankan, Australian and many other teams. Of course and then unlearning all that when the next IPL starts. In the confines of Wankhede, Eden Gardens, Mohali and many other cricket stadiums, the energy was electric and someone watching the same show on TV would never understand the fury of the music, the hysteria whipped up by the cheer leaders and the crowd as it chanted favourites or booed down others.

The good change that has again gone largely unnoticed like the bad is the new faces that have got the opportunity to play with the reigning cricket gods. Good for India and good for cricket and definitely good for brand endorsement, marketing and Public Relations!

As I wait for the semi-finals, I doff my hat to LK Modi and despite the large headline in a prominent Indian newspaper harking back to a real or imagined misdemeanor 20 years ago in a foreign country, life in India after IPL will never be the same! They are obviously trying to get back at his temerity in bringing in IPL Media Guidelines in the usual petty and spiteful style characteristic of the large egos of the rather spoilt Indian press fraternity. Long live IPL!

It was ‘Balle Balle’ from Australia to Amritsar. Our very own obnoxious little weed & his captain’s monkeys have demolished the Australian wild dogs and their sledging empire in the game of cricket. That was indeed a historic moment and cricket crazy people like us across the globe would surely remember it for a long… long… time.

Now let me take you to the future in my time machine. Let’s go to 2020, which is not far away.

Beep…beep… We are finally there!

Another young Indian cricketer is being targeted this time and history is repeating itself. Rohan Gavaskar and Aryan Shah Rukh Khan is in a commentary box and reminding the TV viewers that in the year 2008 one of the young Indian cricketers was called little obnoxious weed in the CWB Series and how he went about taking his revenge on the monkey and weed eating donkey and barking wild dogs of the opposition team!

Cut to one of those thousands of Indian TV News channel, which is showing a special program on cricket and playing some latest ‘Cheque De!’ song in the background and interviewing mothers of all cricketers, their kit handlers and even pitch curators. The questions are being asked about their sons’ performances on the field. Let’s look at one such interview…

“Good evening, Dudes!” My name is Pravin Kumar, but you can call me PK! What a victory it was! Mind Blowing! As you can see I am surrounded by fans of young Pajji and I have with me his sister, brother, chacha, chachi, taya, tayee, mama, mami, padosi, tinku, rinku, pinku and finally last but not the least his mother! Phew! Let’s ask her how she feels about this victory.

“Mam, millions of people are watching you on your news channel. Please tell us – how are you feeling on this victory?”

“I am really feeling great. I knew whatever the Australians were doing it to my son, my son was going to give it back to them with interest. I was sure that Pajji will get rid of crymonds and hay-donke”

“Okay, okay – now please tell our viewers that how did you prepare Pajji to become cricketer. I was told by one of his friends that he was very interested in hokey and not in cricket!”

“Yes, yes! Let me tell you the real story. Actually, you know what! When I was young, I was good looking and was working hard to become a news reporter or somehow show my face on to your Television news channel. I tried various things but unfortunately my bad luck never allowed me to come on TV. And then, one fine day I was watching your channel while cooking ‘mooli ka parantha’ for Pajji ke Dad, I saw mothers of all cricketers being interviewed by reporters like you. That day onwards, in order to fulfill my long cherished wish of coming on TV screen, maine maar maar ke maine mere obnoxious little weed Pajji to hockey se cricket khilwaya! And see today my dream has come true. He is also going to be auctioned for IPL, isse jyada mere liye khushi ka mauka kya hoga?!”

“Look, Charkha we got a great insight from Pajji’s Maa! This is PK signing off from your channel. Charkha – over to you!”

“BREAKING NEWS!”

“YOUR CHANNEL WAS INSTRUMENTAL BEHIND PAJJI BECOMING A CRICKETER”

“PAJJI’S MOTHER ADMITS THAT YOUR CHANNEL MOTIVATED HER TO BEAT PAJJI AND CONVERT HIM TO CRICKET FROM HOKEY”

“YOUR CHANNEL PLAYS A CRUCIAL ROLE IN INDIA’S VICTORY”

C’mon guys! Future is not going to be any different than it is today. What were you hoping that ‘your news channel’ is going to talk about the real issues you face as a normal human being? When the real Indian tigers are being killed in our jungles they are talking about our cricketing tigers, who roar only once in a while? High hopes! The whole behavior of media, especially the news channels is so naïve that, one can not decide whether to cry or laugh. In the frenzy of such news, they don’t talk about real issues and real heroes who are braving the snow-clad Himalayan mountain range at Indo-china-pak borders!

What is the future of media?

I would like my readers to give me answers.

Give me an answer, whether we will see some sensible journalism in future or continue to see Bollywood style news shows?

Give me an answer, whether we will see a fair and unbiased reporting or even after spending precious time and money talking personally to a journalist, going to see the same press release which you gave out to him/her with few references to competition in the next day’s newspaper?

Give me an answer, whether ‘Tatvas’ and ‘Fatwas’ will not rob us of the ‘PRatva’ we have as of today under the disguise of not so ‘private treaties’!

Hain koi jawab tumhare paas?

Lekin bhai…Mere pass Maa hain!!

PS: Can we have a niche channel focusing only on mothers of cricketers?

What an Idea!! Dr. Roy? Mr. Bahl? Mr. Jain? – wanna fund? I have a solid business plan and few upcoming mothers too.