I agree with all the discussion here, but trust me ESPN Star is the best bet in India for telecasting Cricket at the moment. All other channels are a big bunch of jokers who are incapable of executing their routine job which makes the viewers and enthusiasts feel disappointed.
Ten sports and Sony Set Max don't let you watch the 6th ball of every over and half of first ball of the next over. They think apart from bowler bowling and batsmen swinging at it, nothing else in cricket needs to be shown to the viewers apart from hearing the so called stereotype experts.
Trust me, for the true cricket fans and lovers and for the youngsters wanting to learn and imitate the heroes of cricket, its best to watch matches and series where India is not playing and preferably Australia, England or South Africa is hosting. The technology there as well as broadcasting along with commentary will all be top class, only if India is not involved. The commercial interests and advertisements are truly killing this game here in spite of pumping in so much money, there will come a day in future when Indians realise money is not everything. Indian commentators like Arun Lal, Harsha Bhogle, Charu Sharma to name a few are idiots to the core in the aspect I have seen of them which is Cricket. Its infuriating to hear them wag their tongues about strategies in cricket and the quality Indian players. Harsha Bhogle once started boasting about cricket he used to play when in school and compared his highly talented potential with that of mediocre Indian International players. :signthankspin:No matter what, one of them will feature in any tournament India takes part, only assumption I can make of it is may be they come and work for free or dirt cheap and the channels try and make profits by employing them due to their cost factor.
The only remedy IMO is upto BCCI to create and put forth standards in broadcasting apart from everything else they do, but they are way busy in either counting their bank accounts, enter into scams or publicise the scams done by previous boards.
If its a India match and given a choice, I would pick ESPN Star any day. However, its a long way away for them to reach the standards of Channel 9 and co., but it doesn't matter to them as long as their money coffers are filling. They at least showed the complete 6 balls of an over up-to now.
To summarise all the rantings I made here, whats lacking in broadcasting of matches here in India is the passion that people share for the very same game.:sad:
Sorry no idea about ESPN - just not bothered to change the channel.
