BCCI's 'limited overs' cricket with media should end

When it comes to communications, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) continues to be at the bottom of the pile

Committee of Administrators member Diana Edulji (left), new coach Ravi Shastri, BCCI’s acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and CEO Rahul Johri during a press conference at the Cricket Centre, Wankhede Stadium yesterday. Pic/PTI

When it comes to communications, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) continues to be at the bottom of the pile.

Ravi Shastri, the new Team India head coach, addressed the media for a few minutes at the Cricket Centre yesterday at the announcement of his support staff.

But why hasn't the BCCI organised a full-fledged press conference with Shastri? It's only fitting that an important entrant into the team set-up be made available to the media like they do in most cricket-playing countries. This would help the subject (in this case, Shastri) too as he would be less hounded by reporters requesting for quotes.

A reporter who attended the hastily organised, conference called it, "a shambolic press conference which lasted barely five minutes with five people facing the media."

The BCCI can ill afford to be lagging behind when it comes to the media. A proactive discussion with the fourth estate can only have a positive influence on how the average cricket fan views the running of the game in India.

The BCCI can argue that Shastri will take questions today before the team leave for Sri Lanka, but this media conference is a pre-departure one along with skipper Virat Kohli where questions ought to centre around the Sri Lanka tour. Mind you, as per the BCCI's press release, that interaction will go on for only 15 minutes.

If today's media interaction with Kohli and Shastri becomes an all-about-Shastri affair, don't blame the media. BCCI asked for it.

The Czars of Indian cricket will do well to realise that limiting media access is equivalent in many ways to short-changing their fans. Wonder how many of them even know that their new head coach Shastri was chosen by the South African cricket board in 2003 to guide their players on how they should deal with the British media before Graeme Smith & Co landed on English shores. Ironies never fail to crop up and tickle Indian cricket lovers.

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