Glamour in cricket commentary

NEW DELHI: Cricket is a game of many dimensions. A recent innocuous happening, pegged to the World Cup has set off a fresh debate: Does glamour add value to cricket commentary?
The question on indiatimes.com poll has 39 per cent saying it does.
No one doubts that a touch of glamour in the form of Bollywood starlets did provide a welcome relief -- viz Sharjah, where the cameras alternated between focusing on the field and the stars specially gathered for the occasion
Over the last few years cricket commentary has been the fief of former cricketers, and they do make quite an impact.Javagal Srinath has gone on record to state that the commentators were to be blamed for the irate reactions of fans post India''s humiliating defeat to Australia.
But the current debate has centered around a lady called Mandira Bedi. From soaps on the small screen to World Cup has been quite a transition. Nobody really knew who she was until she started doing cricket analysis on TV for the World Cup alongside all time cricketing greats.
Nobody knew who she was even after she started talking cricket, besieged as she was by the likes of Rameez Raja, K Srikanth, Tony Greig, Barry Richards, Venkatesh Prasad, Arjuna Ranataunga and some others on SET Max TV.
This, in a country, where people follow cricket as closely as the bulls and bears of the stock market, with every nuance up for scrutiny, there are riots and people even die of heart attacks when a match gets close.
Programme managers seem to have prevailed over Mandira to do some homework before facing the camera, so that viewers are spared questions like, "What''s the difference between off-spin and leg-spin," during the ICC mini world cup, that her predecessor Ruby Bhatia came up with. Instead, the lady at the centre of the desk makes slightly more informed comments like, "Flat wickets favour spinners," which in a nation of absolute cricketing aficionados is no big deal, but better than Ruby, as many would vouch.
Still, even after she started appearing on the programme Extra Innings, nobody really noticed who Mandira was. People did talk when she addressed Tony Greig as Greigie, but then it is allowed. Until one match she wore a sari without a blouse, or maybe one that was hardly visible and all the bare skin set the tongues wagging. She got noticed all right this time and evoked extreme reactions, whether in her favour or against.
There is one school of thought that says that the two days that she did wear a sari without a blouse, were the days that India won the matches against Holland and Zimbabwe. So much for inspiration.
There are news reports that even the satta market has got into the act, whether she is going or she is not going to. Post her daring attire, the Mandira episode has set off a debate whether glamour adds value to cricket commentary?
And each time eyeballs get glued to the telly screens, Mandira''s attire has become quite as much a serious debate, as is the possible outcome of the match. While right and wrong will continue to be debated without a clear and categorical conclusion, the TV channel surely has managed to generate a talking point, irrespective of whether Team India fares well or not.