Media coverage of Caribbean disaster "unpalatable": Bindra

Chandigarh, Mar 27 (UNI) Former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Inderjit Singh Bindra has termed the coverage of Team India's Caribbean disaster in the media as ''unpalatable.'' Writing from the President's Desk on the website of Punjab Cricket Association (PCA), Bindra said '' Before sifting the reactions I have been seeing in print and on electronic media or conveyed to me by my friends, I must say that much of it has shaken my confidence in the media''.

''Even for someone who has never pulled punches, I find some of the coverage in the media unpalatable. The intensity and insensitivity of some of the prime-time discussions, on a couple of TV channels in particular, can easily be mistaken for late night crime programmes as everything is made to look so sensational.'' Mr Bindra further says ''I must confess the coverage of 2007 World Cup is unnerving. If some channels have gone hysterical about India's performance, the content in some others has been down right abusive, not to mention about the offensive postures of anchors''.

''Some of the talk gives the impression as if the Board and the players gave the impression that they are world-beaters and they will come back with the Cup. It is all the media's creation and they have led the fans up the garden path. To justify the hype, they have now swung to the other extreme,'' writes a disappointed PCA president.

Mr Bindra has claimed that in private some of the 'channelwallahs' had told him that they were forced to resort to such measures because the other channel was doing it. ''I am not going into the sensibilities of the content or its affect on the viewers, my concern is over the arousal of passions of the gullible fans by these programmes,'' Mr Bindra said.

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