Cricket, you bet, is fun. Equally fun is covering cricketing events. Like the India-Australia Test match at Calcutta's Eden Gardens. Truth be told, I don't think I have enjoyed covering any event more than I did this one. A week before the Test, I received an excellent news from former International Cricket Council president Jagmohan Dalmiya's office. That gentleman's secretary Kunal Kanti Ghosh walked up to me and said: "If you have come for media passes, I am afraid you will have to return disappointed." "What? Why?" I asked him. "Mr Dalmiya has taken a firm decision not to issue any passes to dotcom journalists. Please talk to the Calcutta Sports Journalist Association people and don't bother Mr Dalmiya," he said. When I protested that my dotcom colleagues had already been given passes, I was told, "Whatever, but rediff will not get passes!" Of course, the CSJA office-bearers, empowered by Dalmiya to distribute media passes according to their 'prudence', couldn't oblige me. I mean, you can't expect their 'prudence' to be different from that of Mr Dalmiya's, right? But I must say they did their best to help. Especially CSJA secretary Manik Banerjee -- or Manikda as he is known in media circles. He politely asked me to talk to Dalmiya since "only he can do the needful in your case." What I liked about Manikda was his sincerity. He had given me passes to cover various other events in the past, but in this case he was truly helpless. In any case, he explained the options available to me, one of which was to apply on the letterhead of any other media house than rediff. Soon my electronic media friends told me Dalmiya had ignored them as well. We decided to meet the man in person. And when we did, a visibly embarrassed Dalmiya asked CSJA president Shyam Sunder Ghosh to see if "the members of the electronic media and rediff reporter can be accommodated for post-match press conference every day". Ghosh issued special passes to the electronic journalists all right. But conveniently forgot to do so for rediff. Yet, I was there every day, outside the player's changing rooms, for the press conference. How I got there -- well, that's for Mr Dalmiya to crack. It was fun to see the two Ghoshs doing a double take whenever they saw me inside the Gardens. "How could you enter? You were not given passes to come here!" exclaimed the CJSA president. He asked a senior police personnel next to me to verify my pass. The officer, however, refused: "I am shocked that you don't recognise a fellow journalist!" he told Ghosh. "I know him! I have been reading all his stories on rediff.com every night after I get home." On the end of the fourth day, Dalmiya's secretary came to me to protest the "malicious" reports against his boss that had been appearing on rediff "I have read the nice little things you have been writing against me and Mr Dalmiya," he told me. "But that's not true. You should know that Mr Dalmiya has no animosity towards rediff." Then how is that other dotcom journalists were enjoying the luxury of the press box while rediff has to struggle even to get a pass for the post-match press conference? "Yeah, even I am astonished to see Pradip Magazine [from India Today Online] and a few other outstation dotcom reporters covering the match. But believe me, Mr Dalmiya is nowhere involved in issuing passes to them," he claimed. That we have successfully covered the second Test, and covered it well, should show Mr Dalmiya and the Ghoshs that they cannot stop us from carrying out our professional obligations. Anyway, Mr Dalmiya's secretary now says that, contrary to the earlier practice, he simply cannot let rediff.com know in advance about any Cricket Association of Bengal press conferences. If I want to be informed, then I should keep calling his office. Fair enough. It is all part of the package that makes covering cricket fun! Given a free run, Rifat Jawaid would only write about cricket! Illustration: Lynette Menezes Tell us what you think of this diary
HOME | NEWS | CRICKET | MONEY | SPORTS | MOVIES | CHAT | BROADBAND | TRAVEL ASTROLOGY | NEWSLINKS | BOOK SHOP | MUSIC SHOP | GIFT SHOP | HOTEL BOOKINGS AIR/RAIL | WEDDING | ROMANCE | WEATHER | WOMEN | E-CARDS | SEARCH HOMEPAGES | FREE MESSENGER | FREE EMAIL | CONTESTS | FEEDBACK