Mumbai, May 28: Two of India’s greatest sporting icons Sachin Tendulkar and Abhinav Bindra want the media to focus on the positive aspects of the games instead of dishing out incorrect things to the viewers and readers.
“From a sportsman’s point of view, as much positive information as possible needs to be given by the media to help them prepare better,” Tendulkar said here today.
He was speaking after releasing, along with Bindra, ‘Sporting Times’, a compilation of 175 years of sports writing from the archives of the Times of India by Boria Mazumdar.
“But sometimes there are things which actually have not happened. Sometimes there are speculations that there were fights in the team and seniors were not allowing juniors to settle. These are all rumours and that is why you sometimes feel (bad). If any incorrect information goes out in the public, there must be a line,” the batting maestro said.
Bindra, who created history in 2008 at Beijing by shooting down India’s first and thus far only individual Olympic gold medal, endorsed his views.
“When I started playing the game I wanted to be like Mr (Sunil) Gavaskar and Vivian Richards, and set examples for others.
“Today morning, I went to the All India Under-16 football tournament final between Meghalaya and Odisha. (Indian football captain) Sunil Chhetri was there and it was wonderful to interact with him,” said Tendulkar.
“These kinds of tournaments are important and the press has a big role to play by covering these sports and encouraging the youngsters.”
Bindra recalled how a TV channel tried to interview him midway through his qualifying and final rounds in the 10m air rifle contest in Beijing and he was not happy.
“I have a love-hate relationship with the media. It’s important for the media to be sensitive to the sportsmen’s needs. I would not like to be hounded by the media.
“In Beijing, one of the TV channels wanted to interview me after I qualified for the finals (scheduled later in the day) in the 20-25 minutes break and I gave them a dirty look,” said the ace shooter.
Bindra said most of the things written about him in the media after his historic moment five years ago were incorrect. (PTI)
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