IPL, the Game, and the Politics April 30, 2010

Speaker: The 116th session of World Around at NISCORT had Mr. Pradip K Bagchi, a senior Journalist speaking on the IPL, the Game, and the Politics. In 20 years of journalistic career span, he has covered a wide range of beats such as politics, diplomacy, defence, crime and law, disasters and sports. He had been also associated with news channels like CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and News-X as well as AIR

Issues covered: “Cricket is not about balls, it’s about eye ball,” said Mr. Bagchi. The session started with an interesting experience analysis that set the students excited to watch people glued to our television during IPL matches. His lecture intended to make students aware of the corporatisation and commercialization of cricket. He brilliantly explained how cricket has become a business of entertainment in present scenario. Cricket, which is considered as a religion in India has become a mixed baggage of business, glamour and controversies. Mr. Bagchi’s talk made the students understand the concept of Betting and Match fixing in an improved way. He also explained about different formats of cricket such as Day Night matches, ODIs to T – 20. He also focused on how IPL has changed the entire content of game with its prime objective to catch more and more eyeballs while competing with entertainment.

Presentation style: Mr. Pradip Bagchi’s lecture was very interactive and lively. He divided the topic and addressed all important issues such as politics, business, controversies and glamour involved in the IPL game. He interacted with the students in such a way that it helped them in understanding the IPL concept in a much better way.

Evaluation: The politics and controversy of IPL is getting complicated day by day and therefore it was a great privileged for the NISCORTIANS to have Mr. Bagchi to explain the concept of IPL. Answering questions by students Mr. Bagchi said that there is a huge difference in betting and match fixing. He also enlightened the students on how sponsors are dictating the term in such a scenario where IPL’s TRP is much more than most watched daily soaps. Getting an inside knowledge about IPL from an experienced journalist will help our future sports journalists.