MxMIndia

Tag: tennis

  • Ten Sports has extended the live and exclusive telecast rights for the US Open Tennis Championships for a period of four years, starting with the next edition in 2013

    Ten Sports extends TV rights for ‘US Open Tennis Championships’ for four years

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ten Sports has extended the live and exclusive telecast rights for the US Open Tennis Championships for a period of four years, starting with the next edition in 2013. Ten Sports has been telecasting US Open since 2005 and has acquired the rights for India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The final Grand Slam of the year will add to the existing strong line-up of tennis programming on Te Sports.

     

    Comprehensive coverage from start to finish across a variety of platforms will result in more tennis for fans. In addition to the television rights Ten Sports has also acquired the rights mobile, internet and video-on-demand.

     

    Speaking on the acquisition, Atul Pande, CEO, Ten Sports said, “We are proud to be associated with the US Open, one of the biggest sporting events in the world. The conclusion of this agreement is of vital strategic importance as Ten Sports continues to deliver top-flight programming to our viewers.  Rights holders know we have the best distribution of any sports network in the South Asian Market and they appreciate the value we bring to their product not only through having the largest audience, but also the way we present their product, through scheduling, production and expert commentary.”

     

    Gordon Smith, Executive Director of the USTA commented, “We are very pleased that Ten Sports has agreed to continue their relationship with the US Open. Ten Sports has been a good partner of the US Open for many years and their support demonstrates the continuing appeal of the US Open to a worldwide audience.”

     

  • Since the last Olympics, a lot of Indian sportspersons have come to the fore. Apart from gold medals, I think our chances of winning a larger number of medals are higher than ever, says Prasana Krishnan

    The Anchor: Prasana Krishnan on 5 things to watch out for in the 2012 Olympics

    By Prasana Krishnan

     

    1. Indian contingent: The Indian sportspersons have only improved since Beijing 2008. Apart from gold medals, I think our chances of winning a larger number of medals are higher than ever – meaning more silver and bronze medals too – leading to a larger overall tally of medals.

     

    2. Individual performances: Since the last Olympics, a lot of Indian sportspersons have come to the fore. Our boxers and shooters will do us proud this time as well. And, so will the badminton players.

     

    3. Team spirit: Controversies might have outshone them. But I do feel that Indian tennis team’s performance will be worth watching. The players are in great form.

     

    4. Hockey: It’s our national sport and hopefully they will make us proud. The hockey team’s performance is definitely something to look forward to.

     

    5. Usain Bolt: Don’t be surprised if he smashes his own record. After all, he is ‘Lightning Bolt’!

     

    Prasana Krishnan is COO, Neo Sports Broadcasting Pvt Ltd

     

  • What a fine example of India's famous familial feeling we have here – and dare we say it, India's long traditions of patriarchy

    Ranjona Banerji: Crazy, like a fool; what about Daddy Cool?

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    If you are an aging tennis star in India, one element vital for your success is a Daddy. Without a Daddy, you can win on the tennis courts. But as we all know, that is not where wars are won, that is where minor skirmishes are fought. The big fight is in the media. You need a Daddy to defend you, speak for you, put forward your point of view – do all the things you are incapable of or couldn’t be bothered to do yourself.

     

    Which is why in the fight between Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, it is the Daddies who have taken centre court. Why is Bhupathi behaving like such an ass? Out pops Daddy Bhupathi to explain. What is Leander actually going to do? Only Daddy Paes can attempt to answer that.

     

    There are plenty of theories put forward about how men and their fathers operate and many experts use the Oedipus tragedy (son kills father to marry mother) to explain the tension between sons and daddies. But not for the old men of Indian tennis, all this psychobabble poppycock. Compete with their Daddies? Whatever for, when their Daddies are their biggest allies, wiping their botties, filling up their juice bottles, putting on their bibs and interpreting their baby babble for the public.

     

    In women’s tennis, daddies are usually more famous for teaching their daughters some hubble-bubble tennis based on their own crackpot theories and then stealing all their money. Heaven forbid that the Daddies of India’s most famous male tennis players could ever be accused of such reprehensible behaviour. Instead, here they are, speaking up for their adult sons who threaten, bully and sulk their way to the Olympic Games – or not.

     

    What a fine example of India’s famous familial feeling we have here – and dare we say it, India’s long traditions of patriarchy. Birds you know are quite cruel to their babies and push them out of their nests so they can learn to fly. But these tennis Daddies are not wicked birdies – they love their sons and will do whatever the sons want.

     

    I know many daddies who would give such sons two put-puts on their large almost 40-year-old botties and make them fight their own battles. Er, maybe if we had such grown-up, speak-for-themselves tennis stars and less protective Daddies, we might not find ourselves in this Olympic mess?

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: Media double faults in Paes-Bhupathi match

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    After years of working with city reporters, I accepted the fact that many grappled to understand the concept of “presumption of innocence”: If the police made an accusation against someone, why then it had to be true. But, of course, every accused has the right to defence. And while reporting a story, journalists are supposed to be objective. If they cannot provide both sides of a dispute, they must explain to the reader why they have failed.

     

    But in the initial rounds of this rather unfortunate fight in Indian tennis, where Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have refused to partner India’s top tennis player Leander Paes in the 2012 London Olympics, the media started out batting for Bhupathi alone. In what appears to be a well-thought-out campaign, the doubles pair of Bhupathi and Bopanna sent out a series of letters and emails signalling their refusal to play with Paes even before the All Indian Tennis Association decided on the Olympic team. Several newspapers and news channels did not even make a willy-nilly attempt to contact Paes.

     

    The exceptions are possibly DNA and Headlines Today, who got in touch with Paes’s father. But for the most part, it was about the terrible wrong that was about to be done to Bhupathi and Bopanna – being forced to play with Paes for the Olympics. Mail Today and The Times of India seemed like they had stakes in Bhupathi’s career.

     

    These pressure tactics appeared to have failed and the AITA decided to pair Bhupathi with Paes. This is where objectivity completely failed India’s sports journalists. Bhupathi came on air and was quoted in print making all kinds of allegations against Paes. The Times of India at last informed us that they could not contact Paes. Therefore, the story remained one-sided.

     

    Bhupathi and Bopanna meanwhile, perhaps emboldened by this out-and-out media support stated firmly that if either had to partner Paes, they were willing to forgo the Olympics. Despite the media’s usual pattern of extreme jingoism, even this display of lack of country love, did not deter the pro-Bhupathi-Bopanna journalists. One cannot state that sports journalists are less jingoistic than the rest – we see what they do to cricketers regularly. In fact I can guarantee that any top cricketer who refused to play for India because he did not like his team members would be hung, drawn and quartered by the media. By the way, cricket is not even an Olympic sport and technically, when Indian cricketers play, they represent the board. Not so for tennis, where professional players put aside career considerations to play Davis Cup and the Olympics.

     

    However, as the week of allegations by Bhupathi and Bopanna came to a close, the media slowly started to turn. Paes may have contributed to that by issuing a statement that he was willing to go by the AITA’s decision. The Indian Express and Mid-Day started to look at being fair to all concerned. The Hindustan Times later also presented a larger picture. The Times of India came to the party last – but more on its edit pages than its sports pages.

     

    Where a reader should have been given perspective on this battle and information to negotiate through this unseemly fight, he or she got a minefield of accusations from only one side. Now the villain of the piece is apparently the AITA as Bhupathi has approached the sports ministry to step in. Bhupathi has accused the selection committee of being a bunch of bureaucrats who know nothing about tennis. To me they appear to be former players – perhaps not of the stature of Bhupathi but tennis players nonetheless, a fact which needs to be pointed out in the media.

     

    Monday night saw Times Now’s Arnab Goswami ask Mahesh Bhupathi some tough questions – some of which he struggled to answer. This is the first time that Bhupathi’s accusations were questioned. Later, the fathers of Paes and Bhupathi were on Times Now, where Paes Senior pointed out that Bhupathi was not blameless in this battle, while Bhupathi Senior tried to shrug that off and say the Olympic riddle had to be solved not the mistakes made by the boys.

     

    Appalling as this ego battle between India’s top tennis players may be, the media’s partisan stand has been as appalling.