About the evolved cricket watching experience on the television and what it holds.
The arch-rivals are locking horns in a key contest. The jam-packed stadium is getting behind the home team. The match has entered an exciting stage in the dying moments where all the results seem possible. Amidst this high tension atmosphere, an off-spinner is bowling to a new batsmen on the crease, with close-in fielders circled around him. The tension is writ across the batsman’s face. The ball has been doing all sorts of tricks on the dust bowl. The first ball of the over turns in sharply and the batsman gets tentatively forward, ending up offering a half-hearted face of the bat. The ball skids and jams between pad and bat, loops up a little and slips into the wicket-keeper’s hands. The fielding team goes up in frantic appeal. The crowd joins in. Giving a hard look, the on-field umpire nods his head in disapproval. The fielding captain, almost as a knee-jerk reflex, opts for a decision review. The decision goes to the court of the third umpire and then, the technology takes over.
The hawk-eye gets flashed across the television screen. It
tracks the trajectory of the ball to decide if all the LBW criteria were met. The
ball pitches outside leg, ruling out an LBW. It leaves the umpire with just checking
the possibility of a catch out dismissal. The snickometer comes into play. It
shows a definite sound when bat and pad make a contact with the ball but it
needs further investigation. The services of Hot Spot are used. It checks for a
faint edge on the bat. The third umpire confirms the dismissal and the on-field
umpire overrules his original decision by raising a finger. The technology, in
this incident, rules out a possibility of a wrong dismissal at a crucial time
when the match is at a decisive stage. The wicket turns out to be a key moment that
shifts the game towards the fielding side.
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And that is not it. The use of zing wickets for stumping and
run-outs, the use of Spider-Cam and super slo-mos have been some other
additions to the game, of late. The experience of watching a cricket match on
the television has improved exponentially in recent times. A lot of data
analysis has come into the picture, churning out statistics from all different perspectives.
For instance, you can know now that
whenever India has played South Africa at home and Ab DeVilliers hasn’t scored
a fifty, what has been the win percentage for the Proteas? What has been the strength zone of a batsmen
in a particular time frame? A lot of numbers, clips, and opinions have started
to flow in. The tickers on the television hold interesting statistics meant to
engage the viewer, to make the commentary insightful and to take the overall
experience to another level. The social media polls and comments keep flashing
across the screen inviting the engaged audience to have their moment of fame on
television.
Amidst all these action replays, technological
interventions, data analysis, improved cameras and coverage, the brands have
not missed any chance to own little properties on the post and pre match
analysis shows and even in the middle of a telecast, often intruding the space
of a valued experience. The extreme branding measures can be seen more desperate
in the glamorous T20 leagues, with even commentators diluting the analysis with
brand mentions.
With such a complex ecosystem created on the back of
enormous money being pumped into the system, the era of hearing Gavaskar’s
batting being narrated on a radio seems of the era of a troglodyte. To trace
down this evolution, try surfing random cricket videos of different eras and
notice how the growth has come at a rapid clip only in the past decade.
With all the hassles of getting one’s hands on tickets of an
awaited game, the modern viewer might be tempted to choose the comfort of enjoying
the experience on television, only if the brands don’t end up nullifying the
good work technology has done.
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