Hall of Fame - Mohinder Amarnath

[Lurker]

Re: Hall of Fame - Mohinder Amarnath Shwetabh, I beleive you have a fair point about the media. Yes it is true that Indian cricket fans have been historically devoid of great cricket media. Sure we have had our KN Prabhu, N Ram and the likes but overall its not very flattering. The question of course is, is it all media's fault or is it also cricket fans? I mean if you go to say London and walk to a book store you would be amazed at sheer cricket literature. If English scribes talk of WC Grace or Gilbert Jessop it is as much to their English allegiance as also the fact that they are aware of their cricket history. In India you would be hard pressed to find cricket fans who know much about CK Nayudu, let alone a Baloo Palvankar or DP Deodhar. BB, you have a valid point about Indians not exactly going gaga with their cricket heroes or as you say SKC. But you also go to the extreme of suggesting Bradman is touted needlessly. Without wanting to be drawn about the greatness of Bradman, I would say that I would like Indian media to be fair in their undertaking, fair to Indians as well as non-Indians. As it so happens it seems they are not fair to either. xxxx

[The Outsider]

Re: Hall of Fame - Mohinder Amarnath

The question of course is, is it all media's fault or is it also cricket fans? I mean if you go to say London and walk to a book store you would be amazed at sheer cricket literature. If English scribes talk of WC Grace or Gilbert Jessop it is as much to their English allegiance as also the fact that they are aware of their cricket history. In India you would be hard pressed to find cricket fans who know much about CK Nayudu, let alone a Baloo Palvankar or DP Deodhar.

Its primarily the media's fault, Lurker. How do the British know about Grace or Jessop? Not through word of mouth, but because of high quality literary, sports journalism which has survived the test of times and is still available. I doubt any good work was written about Deodhar or even Nayadu or for that matter even more recent stars like Amarnath. There was no shortage of books on Gavaskar and Kapil but most were best confined to trash bins. Strength of the media is vastly underestimated in sustaining the deeds of heroes.

[Rahul]

The question of course is, is it all media's fault or is it also cricket fans?

a bit of both, but i would lean on the side of fans who would take most blame--after all, most media (if u have tracked and studied media patterns) tends to be a "follower" than a "leader" (as fine arts would be, for instance). when i was a scribe, i would have perfectly valid (but uncomfortable) articles thrown out ("Yaar, gavaskar ka article hai, phir woh match report hai--yeh sab ke liye jagah nahin hai... ) the simple logic here was that the editor (ayaz) didnt have any confidence that our readership would appreciate the article in question--else he would have fought for it and made sure it ran. re: MA, i think his entire legacy is a smack on the face of indian fans. shame on us.

[CC1981]

Take for example the case of Bradman .... regardless of the mountain of stats that go against the claim of him being an "ALL TIme Great" there will never ever be a shortage of Indians that will pimp his case over our own. Thats nothing but classic SKC.

I beg to differ. I think anyone who thinks Bradman is anything but the greatest batsman ever is nothing more than a jingoistic fool who puts nationalism above truth and knows zilch about cricket. Remember our national sloka : Satyameva Jayate. Unfitting of Indians to cloud the truth just for some cheap thrills on the back of jingoism.

[CC1981]

As far as MA goes, i think the truth is somewhere in between. We didn't have a professional media back then comparable to the Anglo-media. For two, Jimmy ended with a whimper and while his feats against the WIPQ was celebrated as legendary, he was ultimately destroyed by the same WIPQ. As such, he stands as a figure who won many a famous battle against the odds but lost the war ultimately. Amarnath had the ingredients to become a folk hero (ie, jigra) but like all folk heroes, he does have some glaring flaws. His undoing, more than anything, was his unprofessional approach to cricket. LA is on record saying that Jimmy had all heart and zero everything else - technique or dedication for practice.

[The Outsider]

We didn't have a professional media back then comparable to the Anglo-media.

Our media is still an apology compared to top notch media houses in the West like BBC, National Geographic, New York Times, The Times etc. We dont have a single channel or newspaper which can be compared to the best in the world. NDTV looked like it might but has gone completely down the drain. The Hindu has been good but has never broken the barrier towards excellence.

[gs]

:thumbs_up: