Partisan Sports Coverage

Lopsided sports coverage in India has always been a controversial issue. At one time it was cricket Vs the rest of the sports. As more people started making a mark in other sports this disparity slowly started to subside. It was a well-known fact that games like Chess never got the attention they deserved till people like Vishwanathan Anand started making a mark in the international arena.

The meteoric rise of Sania has given a new lease of life to this partisan sports coverage. Sania is the newfound darling of the Indian media. The term “Sania Mania” would probably go down as the most often used term (in the media) in recent times. Although she might be entitled to every bit of the coverage, the proportion of such coverage needs to be reviewed. Mahesh Bhupathi’s mixed doubles victory in the US Open and Anju Bobby George’s victory in the Incheon games never received the kind of attention that they ought to have received. 'Sania sacrifices Biriyani’s and Baristas' might make good headlines but the media needs to decide how much of this attention is justifiable.

Sevanti Ninan, author of the weekly media column in The Hindu sums up the sorry state of affairs :

The day Sania lost at New York, Anju Bobby George won a gold at Incheon. But no forest of mikes was ranged outside her mother's door even at 7 p.m., let alone at 2 a.m. Long jump is not as sexy as tennis, and George is not given to sporting tee shirts which say "I'm Cute, No S***". She can manage responses to questions from studios, not comebacks at press conferences. P.T. Usha and Shiny Abraham, before her, were similar, and consequently did not spur news channels to make perfect asses of themselves in anticipation of their performance.

In addition to all this, the AP Chief Minister has announced a prize money of Rs. 20 lakhs to Sania. As Vikram rightly put it, this money would have been much more useful had it been given to somebody like Koneru Humpy. Chess is a game, which is shunned by advertisers / sponsors and these players do need money to travel overseas to attend all the tournaments.

I reiterate that my intention is not to do Sania bashing. The younger generation does need high achievers like Sania so that people can use her as an idol worthy of emulation. But the Sania craze has resulted in a blackout of news about other equally deserving sportspersons. Hope some balance is restored.

Update: Gayathri points us to this ToI slide show, which compares Sania Mirza with Koneru Humpy