Desperately seeking media manager

And 'manage' is what he will be doing. All the more required now than ever before. After all, with success or the signs of success also come the conspiracies that will be hatched to undermine it. Which is not to say, am suggesting any conspiracies here. Just the possibility that 'Media Management' is poised to become an integral part of overall strategy. Presuming it hasn't already. In fact, from what I've seen so far, my view is the Aussie media plays as much a role in undermining the minds of the opposition as the Aussie team. Think about that.

Also needed in times like when just after we thought we'd seen the biggest scandal to threaten cricket since 'Bodyline,' one of the country's leading weeklies reminds us to... well, think again. If the intrepid folk from Outlook are to be believed, drugs are the new bane of Indian cricket. Which is not really what this article is about. This is, also, not about whether it is right or wrong to use performance-enhancing drugs. (In my view, in this day and age, there are some solidly justifiable reasons for doing so.) Nor is it about whether the Indian players are using, or having anything to do with, drugs at all. (Though, the article did seem to set out with the premise that they did.) Neither is it about whether cricket is simply physical enough to need 'boosters' for better results. It's about all those things and more.

It's about ensuring players are not misquoted. That well-thought out, mature responses to 'always-tricky' media questions are the order of the day. And the team speaks in one voice. It's also about the media not being allowed to get away with re-interpreting poorly worded responses from players, and other people, not professional enough for this full-time job. These and some of the other aspects of dealing competently enough with the dangerous animal that is the media, is what this is about.

We saw what the media can do to players and the game during the match-fixing scam. It's scary. Even scarier, it's more heady than scary. (Especially, for the media.) Not to mention, the mob mentality that is often characteristic of human thought. (More so, maybe most of all so, when it comes to pop-culture icons.) And far-from-all-said-and-done, it's not something the players are equipped to deal with. (God knows they have a hard enough time dealing with the opposition.)

Then again, why should they? Should they? If so, it's not fair. They all do full time jobs. (Or at least, we hope they think of their cricket that way.) They are professionals. (Getting there.) They are part of an outfit that is aiming for the top. (If the 'big-game hunters' we in the media have morphed into will let them.) The least the organization can give them is a face, mind and voice to deal with the additional pressures the media saddles them with.

The media is tricky territory. Worst of all, it is a space where anything... everything is open to interpretation. (Often too many interpretations.) Players, many of them not well versed in the language of the media, should not be dragged into the tricky morass that is 'media questioning.' When cricket gets this big, everything becomes a big deal. Goes without saying then, that what is said should not always, we'll keep never out of it for the time being, lie between the spaces of 'what is said' and 'how it is interpreted.'

Plus, if what you say is so important, and it is, it ought to be important enough to get an expert to say it. Someone who has spent time understanding what and how the public consumes words, information, disinformation, plots, conspiracies, mental disintegration, exotic animals... the works.

This is a different planet, a planet with no boundaries, global interests, money power, overblown emotion and global domination. Which is why this team, any team, anyone, on 'M' Planet needs to 'manage the Big M' of life. Not that M! Can we get away from money and materialistic pursuits for a while? Please. This is the 'M for Media.' Which, when you think of it, is about money. Ah well... what isn't? But enough about that.

Point is, and there is one, more than one, to expect players to tackle all kinds of tricky questions from shrewd 'Media-persons' is surely asking for a trouble. Players are players. They are not well versed in the machinations of what us story-grabbers do. They don't know what to say at all times. They also don't have a clue on how what they say is likely to be interpreted. They need an official mouthpiece. And while the nature of the term does have it not-so-flattering connotations, the man/woman is a must. If there's one thing the match-fixing scam has taught us, it's what the media can do. And undo.

Case in point the news doing the rounds that Sachin might be back in the fray for the captaincy. Can't help thinking that's going to do no one any good. Just like any more talk about Sourav's form. This kind of talk is only more pressure. On him. On Sachin. On the team. On the captaincy. On Indian cricket. So lay off Sourav! Lay off Sachin! Lay off Ajit! Lay off Rahul! Lay off this team! Go look for the 'Media Manager.' Hurry, Mr. Muttiah! The 'frogs in the well' of our Indian psyche are out to restore the status quo. (Umm, I can be contacted at s.avi@mailcity.com.)

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Mail Avinash Subramanium