By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
Jaipur : Millions of Pakistani fans are missing live action of the ongoing India-Pakistan cricket as the official rights holding channel has been taken off air following emergency rule in that country. However, to meet the huge demand, Pakistan Radio is broadcasting commentary from its local stations.
Geo Super — the sports channel of the Geo group — has the rights for live telecast of Pakistan matches in India. But all channels of the group have been taken off air following the declaration of emergency in Pakistan. The channel is being uplinked from Dubai, but only those with special dish antennae in Pakistan are able to view it there.
To partially meet cricket-crazy Pakistan’s demands for action, PTV sent a correspondent to India midway through the five-match one-day international series. But in the absence of live feed from India — private channels share the telecast with PTV for a fee — the correspondent is sending his written match reports and other despatches to the PTV.
State-owned Pakistan Radio is broadcasting the running commentary of the matches through a makeshift arrangement.
“Pakistan Radio has deputed a commentary team and they are commentating by watching the telecast from a South African television channel SuperSport,” a Pakistani journalist told IANS here.
“To recreate match atmosphere, including the crowd’s shouting etc., for listeners, a microphone has been placed near a TV (set) as the commentators describe the game from the studios.”
Only a section of the masses in Pakistan have access to the ongoing cricket matches through dish antenna. The dish is legally showing the matches on SuperSport.
Geo TV’s Dubai station was closed down midnight Friday apparently on the intervention of Musharraf.
However, Geo TV correspondents in India are hopeful that the government would soon allow the channel to resume cricket telecast.