Published: Feb 17, 2016, 02:21 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 17, 2016, 02:21 PM (IST)
On April 18, 2008, Kolkata Knight Rider‘s Brendon McCullum set the stage ablaze with that blistering knock of an unbeaten 158 off 73 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore. He hammered the Indian Premier League (IPL) deep into imagination of the country’s cricket crazy population, and the knock remains etched in memories of the average Indian. The endless promotional and marketing events did not do as much as McCullum’s knock on the opening day did to make the IPL a massive hit. McCullum was an instant fan favourite and has held a cherished position in the hearts of Indian supporters ever since, his match-saving 300 against them notwithstanding. Now, almost eight years later, the same man is set to play his last Test and Indian broadcasters have blind-eyed the proceedings. RELATED: Thanks for the memories, Brendon McCullum
As the cricketing world sings praise of the brave-hearted hero — the first and only Test triple centurion for New Zealand and only player in history to play a 100 consecutive Tests since debut — it is of great distress that McCullum’s final international series failed to entice the multitude of broadcasters in the world’s cricketing capital. READ: Brendon McCullum: One of the biggest impact players bows out of international cricket
New Zealand Cricket (NZC), in response to the huge demand from Indian masses to have some form of live access to video coverage of the series, have made available a free live streaming facility exclusively for Indian masses. There is no way they would have gone to that extent were it not for glaring demand.
However, even in these times of technological boom, the availability of internet is the preserve of only a minor segment of Indian society. In most regions, the television set still rules supreme in the media domain. Most Indian cricket fans have to live in the pain of being denied video access to the farewell of a man they have grown to admire as one of their own.
It is understandable that business runs on economics and not on emotion. New Zealand is located in a corner far removed from India that makes for an entirely inconvenient time zone. A Test match in Kiwi land starts at the devil’s hour in India, 3 am, when most people prefer shuteye. By the time it is a more convenient 10 am IST, the game at best is in it’s finishing stages.
Having acknowledged that, there is an undeniable demand for this particular series. Not only is it the ultimate instance of McCullum wearing the whites, but the prospect of a New Zealand- Australia Test is a delectable one in itself. McCullum’s retirement only adds a great sense of occasion to the happenings.
The idea that the emotional sentiment can be harnessed into an economic success for the broadcasters is backed by the fact that #NZvsAUS has often been the top trend in India during course of the matches, often surpassing the positions the hashtag enjoys in the Twitter trends of the participating countries.
This makes it baffling that not one of the broadcasters chose to make room for the series. If majority of a country’s Twitter mass finds a topic interesting enough to propel it to the top of their trends, they would definitely suck up to television coverage of it.
On February 20, 2016, when skipper McCullum leads his team to battle against the sworn-rivals, and as his team look to clinch a series-levelling win in a bid to give their skipper a warm, memorable farewell, the country where McCullum enjoys a following at par with that of his home country, will wail in the sorrow, not only of his retirement but also their inability to watch him take the final bow.
(Rishad D’Souza, a reporter with CricketCountry, gave up hopes of playing Test cricket after a poor gully-cricket career. He now reports on the sport. You can follow @RDcric on Twitter)
