How Sachin Destroyed My Life: but gave me an All Access Pass to the world of Cricket

by Vikram Sathaye

  The fan journalist is a simple lover of the game who appreciates the beautiful things that make this game special like, the lush outfield, grass on the pitch, the leg glance and the dew factor. The failed cricketer turned journalist always looks down on the fan journalist.

  Sports journalists share their waistlines but never their headlines.

  With the advent of 24-hour television and the internet, the life of a journalist has become a tough one. The constant need to churn out story after story and exclusives has made journalists very competitive and hence a love-hate relationship has developed amongst them. When in India they are indifferent to each other, but the moment they are travelling abroad this hatred metamorphosises into unbridled love. One of the reasons is that foreign tours are very expensive and unless they share accomodation, they wouldn’t be able to save a pound or two. Money unites people and as a wise man once said, money saved is money earned. This prospect creates strange bedfellows. A foreign tour for a journalist is a bumper assignment especially if its a tour to South Africa, Australia or England. However, if it’s Bangladesh then it’s a bumper assignment for the batsmen. The match making process kicks off the moment a tour is announced. They start calling each other for sharing accommodation and other requirements. Someone carries food items, someone a pressure cooker and there is a proper checklist that each one follows to show their contribution to the tour. It’s common knowledge that there are certain journalists who are close to certain cricketers and depending upon who’s playing well at a certain time the power of that particular journalist rises. In case you are in Australia then the journalists who are close to the batsmen are completely ignored. Fast bouncy wickets you see.

  However close journalists they might get on a foreign tour and irrespective of the level of camaraderie developed over a few drinks, when it comes to sharing their story it’s always like the Silence of the Lambs. I have seen journalists sharing their waistlines but never their headlines. They might discuss everything over an evening; from boasting about the various stories and tours covered in the past, to who scored in what context and how they knew which player would be the Man of the Series. By the end of the evening they would tell each other their life story but not the story they were filing the next day. This was one secret that couldn’t be let out because it was also the sole differentiator amongst the herd. The rivalry continues in the press box with all of them keeping their laptops in a semi-closed state with their heads inside and carefully keeping an eye out for those snooping on them. Another rule I learnt here was “Smaller the font, bigger the story.”

  The other zone of entertainment is the post-match press conference. MS Dhoni is a master at handling the media and their many questions. He can be cocky but yet make a point. He can be very humourous too. He hurt his middle finger during the 2006 South African tour and when a journalist asked him, “MS which finger did you hurt?”, he smartly said, “I can’t show it to you.”

  On the other hand, Inzamam’s press conferences were usually entertaining irrespective of what had happened with the game, purely because of his innocence. There was an interview where there was a barrage of questions that were thrown at him on Abdul Razzaq’s performance. The clincher was when a journalist repeatedly asked him, “Aap Abdul Razzaq ke baare mei kya kehna chahenge?” After a few seconds of silence, he softly retorted: “Bhai saab, kuch karega toh bolunga.”

  Fielding Lagana

  A cricket journalist’s boon and bane of existence is the cricketer, and getting a quote from him can make or break his career. With tremendous pressure from the bureau back home, they are always edgy and waiting to find some news or the other in order to justify their foreign trips. Most of the time the BCCI bars cricketers from speaking to the media and that makes their task tougher. So the entire tour is about getting that one byte, even if it comes from the waiter who serves the players tea in the dressing room. Sehwag once narrated an incident to me about a nagging journalist. He called him and said, “Viruji ek interview dedo, nahi toh meri naukri chali jayegi.” The answer Sehwag gave was just like his uppercut. He replied, “Mein kya karoon, tujhe naukri meine thodi na lagvayi thi.” In cricket journalism if one has not cracked the code of befriending cricketers, then one has achieved nothing. The process of creating this web of friendship and letting a player fall into it is referred to as “fielding lagana” by journalists. The journalist with a touring cricketer’s local number is the King of the Jungle.

  Many people may not get the gravity of the words “fielding lagana”. Players keep on changing with tours, but the methodology used remains the same. Once you know that a certain player is showing potential and the nation is starting to get obsessed with him, it becomes your responsibility to ensure that you create a maze and get close enough to him to ensure your salary for some months at least. It’s a tough job but you’ve got to do it as there is no other option. The maze first starts with sending him birthday messages and anniversary greetings, if he’s happily married. This then moves on to birthday wishes for the cricketer’s son and other family members and could ultimately reach extremes like greetings for Teachers Day, World AIDS Day, Gudi Padwa, Pongal, Dassera, and many others restricted only by one’s imagination. The biggest evolution happens when the relationship changes from SMS to BBM. When this happens, you know you hold some potential of getting into the inner coterie.

  The only place the media can meet players is the post-match press conference, the hotel lobby or a restaurant where the player would possibly go for dinner. It is extremely important to know where the players are eating, especially on a foreign tour, because that is the time they are in a relaxed mood and it’s easier to get a meeting with them for a future date. If you can throw in a few recommendations on what to eat and convince the chef to make something that the player likes then you have reached a high level of customer satisfaction. This could win you brownie points which you could redeem at some point in your career. So the moral of the story is that if you want a byte, catch the player having a bite!

  The process of creating this web of friendship and letting a player fall into it is referred to as “fielding lagana” by journalists.

  Journalists are a persistent lot and believe that one has got to keep trying. It’s sometimes about being at the right place at the right time which could lead to a jackpot story. Harini Rana, one of the few women reporters, subscribes to this theory. She explains, “Some of the biggest stories are done by being aware of your surroundings. During the Chappell era, there used to be a lot of stories around vision documents, players’ camps and various processes being followed by the team during those camps. I was at the team hotel when a player mistakenly dropped his dossier at a table. When I visited the conference room where the team meeting was held an hour later for another meeting, I noticed a bunch of papers. After having read through them, they went on to become the headlines of the following day.”

  Harini also says that the hotel lobby is the place to get the best stories but one needs to have abundant amounts of patience. She once had to do a Brett Lee interview which was scheduled for the morning, but eventually took place at 6:30 in the evening. She says such events put life in perspective and made her calmer and gave her the strength to face tougher eventualities in life.

  Well not all cricketers are easy to deal with. Some of them do not take their dropping from the team very well and Harini once reported such a story of a cricketer who refused to talk to her ever again.

  People who had mastered the art of “fielding lagana” off the cricket ground were the journalists from Bengal. If you thought the most intimidating field placements were done by Douglas Jardine for the Australian players during the Bodyline Tour then what the Bengali Journalists brigade did during the reign of Sourav Ganguly as captain was tenfold. If you ever saw black cat commandos surrounding a noted politician multiply that effect by hundred and that is what the Bengali journos parading in and around Sourav were like. He was a messiah for them, if he was God on the off
side for us, he was God on every side for them. It was like watching the passing out parade of the National Defence Academy. If he turned left they turned left, if right they turned right. Sourav Ganguly was the reason they existed and on tours whether in England, Australia or South Africa they went about with the confidence that Al Capone would have had in his heyday. They knew that as long as Dada was captain they were safe. It’s understandable because for a Bengali newspaper it was sacrilege if they didn’t get a Sourav exclusive and some other newspaper from the north did. So every Kolkata journalist gave a feeling that he was closest to Dada, hence by the end of Sourav’s tenure as captain the most words one heard in the press box were Dada, Dadi, Skipper, Mohraj and many more.

  The major difference between the sports journalism of yesteryears and of today is that in the past the endeavour was to write elaborate articles describing in great graphic detail the playing conditions as there was limited access to high quality television back then. The competition between journalists was on the basis of who described the cover drive the best. They were all inspired by the writings of the great Sir Neville Cardus and KN Prabhu. However things are a lot different now as most readers are more interested in the car that Suresh Raina drives than the beauty of his cover drive. I remember during the 2011 Australian tour, some journalists seemed to be waiting for some kind of argument or fight to break out between Sehwag and Dhoni as they figured this fight sequence had the potential to give them higher TRPs than all the fight sequences of Sholay and Dabangg put together.

  With the advent of e-mail and other technologies, covering a cricket match has become relatively easy. However back then the effort required in meeting deadlines using typewriters and fax machines and was a challenge by itself. Senior cricket journalist Ayaz Memon once said, “We did all our work on typewriters and anyone who had a Brother typewriter was considered extremely cool. Most couldn’t afford even a simple one. My prized possession was a Rs 800 typewriter I picked up from Lahore during the 82-83 Pakistan tour.” The pressure to deliver back then was relatively low because however big or small the victory, cricket news was always restricted to the back pages unlike today where “Breaking News: India Won The Toss” could be just under the masthead in case there is some space left by the advertisers.

  In the past, cricket journalists have had to share a room between three people and cook for themselves as they couldn’t afford to eat outside regularly. Ayaz recounts when once a whole lot of journalists were invited by Peter Roebuck, an eminent Australian cricket journalist to a restaurant for a party. The entire contingent was quite excited as they thought “Chalo ek meal ka kharcha saved.” After having a sumptuous meal, Peter announced that the bill was to be shared by all the members present. The Indian journalists were in a state of shock not knowing that this was a common practice in many countries around the world. Many Indians I know are pretty scared by the possibility of such an incident and it takes them years to get over the trauma of spending at such a party.

  There has been a tremendous evolution since India has become the cricketing super power. Indian journalists worry less about paying for food now as the type of food being served in press boxes internationally has changed. I remember during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa one would regularly get cold cuts and continental grub; but by 2006 one had started smelling curry even in the outfield of the cricket ground.

  Roleplay

  One of the lesser known facts is that journalists also play a pro-active role in highlighting upcoming talent to the selectors. They are at times the communicator between junior and senior cricketers.

  Young cricket journalist Devendra Pandey mentions a time when he called Indian selector Dilip Vengsarkar and suggested he watch out for an upcoming bowler called Umesh Yadav which possibly helped in some way since it’s not possible for selectors to be present at regional matches all the time. Journalists covering local cricket also facilitate meetings between promising youngsters and their cricketing heroes and sometimes even pass on extra equipment from senior players to them. Devendra refers to journalists as “Narad Munis” for the role they play across the board.

  Akshay Sawai is someone who has covered many sports apart from cricket. He talks about the fact that sometimes an interview with a senior cricketer can be an education in itself. An incident he recounts was during a domestic tour game against New Zealand in 95-96; he confronted Sachin for not pushing the opposition harder for a win by applying an aggressive mindset. Sachin was startled by this question, and asked him whether he had seen the field placements properly, including the slip cordon. Akshay then realised that there were indeed certain things he had failed to notice. This encounter had helped him grow as sports journalist.

  Akshay says that even interviewing sportspersons has a certain science to it. If you have only 5 seconds and one question to ask you better not miss the opportunity by asking an irrelevant question. This happened to him once when he got to meet the great John McEnroe during the US open in 1999. This was also the year when Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati were in peak form and were touted as the best doubles pair in the world. Big Mac refused Akshay an interview but said you can ask me one question. Akshay was so awestruck by the moment that he rattled out a question about his tremendous season in 1984. Akshay says, “It was a wasted question. I got carried away by the moment. If I would have asked him about the Indian boys, maybe I would have got a more relevant and better headline for my article.”

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  The Sports Journalist’s Checklist

  One of the most amazing things of a cricket tour is the relationships you develop while travelling, especially with freelance journalists. They have the uncanny ability to befriend people from various countries and develop a long lasting bond and friendship. One such senior journalist I befriended was Sunandan Lele who has covered Indian cricket for over 25 years. I am extremely jealous of him as he can easily claim to have seen at least 85 out of the 100 centuries Sachin Tendulkar has scored, live. It can’t possibly get better than this for any cricket lover.

  Over the last 10 years, what I have learnt from Sunandan, no media guru could teach me in my life. It’s almost impossible to find someone who has not only been loved by every colleague of his but also by every cricketer I know. Sunandan was the captain of the Maharashtra U-19 cricket team and one of the millions who couldn’t make it to the Ranji team and therefore had no option but to get a job as a sales representative in a regional Marathi newspaper. After years of hard work and some stability in life, he transformed himself into a freelance journalist who took assignments from various media houses and funded his own tour. But life was tough for the first 10 years as he could barely make any money after spending on his air ticket, hotel stay, food and local transport. So there was no option for Sunandan but to become a walking talking cost saving machine. Even today on a cricket tour Sunandan carries a rice cooker, masalas and hundreds of ingredients to make two daily meals for an entire two month long cricket tour. For years, he says, it was simply unaffordable for him to eat at a restaurant. The one thing that saw him through those tough times, was the art of gifting. Sunandan carried with him Indian gifts like Narayan Pethi sarees, small bags and artefacts on tours. For all those who don’t get the gravity of this, Sunandan once gifted a Rs 100 zari bag to the media manager at Wimbledon and ended up watching a Roger Federer match. He says these below Rs 500 a piece gifts made him the most popular Indian in every cricket playing nation in the world. According to him, it is not the cost but the thought behind the gift that matters, though strangely this logic does not apply to one’s wife.

  Lele’s 10 Commandments For Every Wannabe Journalist

  1. Knowledge

  If you are doing a Rahul Dravid interview please read up about him. I know of a young journalist who once asked Rahul whether he played matches in Australia. Can you beat that! If you are knowledgeable, a player will tell you things you’d never expect.

  2. Expand Your Horizons

  A good jou
rnalist should watch a match from different viewing points on the ground and should interact with as many people as possible. This helps you get an all-round perspective about the game.

  3. Bowling the Right Ball

  Ask a cricketer the right question and he could tell you things that might give you your next headline. Do not ask mundane questions like “How are you feeling?” after the player has scored a century.

  4. Love All

  Don’t forget the guys who are playing badly. Love the 16 members of the squad equally, you never know who will start performing when, and by then it may be too late.

  5. Dinner Diplomacy

  The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and cricketers are no different. There is no substitute for dal-roti. Pasta and Fungi Marinati is for impressing your girlfriends. So ensure you know the best places to get an Indian meal across the world and you will catch cricketers in their best mood out there.

  6. Art of Multi-tasking (go beyond the sport)

  A journalist should make sure that when he or she is covering cricket matches, it’s important to try and go beyond the sport and write about life outside the cricket field as well. This means that, they need to cultivate some interest in other walks of life as well. Whilst touring South Africa, you also need to write about the historical significance of the place to add value to your article.