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The decline of cricket coverage in the Indian press

I remember the times when I used to really look forward to the cricket coverage in mainstream newspapers like the Hindu and the Indian Express  and of course my weekly copy of Sportstar. There was so much variety in the narrative styles and the topics covered, that a young boy like me who was just becoming familiar with the game learnt a huge amount from these publications.

The tremendous rise of the internet (and especially ESPNcricinfo) as means of cricket content consumption though has been accompanied by an equally precipitous decline in the standards of cricket coverage in these same publications of old. It could also be that I have learnt more about the game and hence am more critical/discerning. Or it could be that I don't bother to spend enough time looking outside Cricinfo and a few select blogs that I just don't find the other worthwhile pieces?

Whatever the reasons, the current reality is that my expectations tend to be really low from Indian newspapers and so when I do find a piece that's not the same old stuff regurgitated and is actually worth reading, it grabs my attention more than it would otherwise. Sandeep Dwivedi's recent piece on Zaheer and Yuvraj doing fitness work in France is one such. It may not be the best written but at least it focuses on a real story without hypothesising too much and also attempts to look (albeit somewhat briefly) at the humans behind the bowler/batsmen.

Indians don't suffer in comparison to other cricket playing countries when it comes to writing skills and cricket knowledge so how come none of the good writers choose to work for newspapers?
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