Why Are Ads Between Cricket Matches Louder Than the Commentary?

by Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

 Somebody has to explain this as some time. After all, if the broadcasting norms are really stringent, perhaps they could do something about the volume at which ads between a cricket match blare.
Anyone who watches cricket with a vengeance will attest to the fact that there are few things more exasperating than watching cricket matches on television and having to constantly reach for the remote control after every over.

     If it is not bad enough that by the time cricket returns from the ad break, the bowler had finished his run up and in the process of completing taking a wicket, the advertisements are deliberately pitched at a higher volume that has people screaming, "where is the **** remote?"

   If the volume is maintained, when the cricket returns, the commentary is barely audible, making one reach for the remote again to readjust the volume. The process is endless because unlike a football match when play goes on uninterrupted for forty-five minutes, ads are squeezed in at a dime a dozen between overs.

    While watching cricket on television beats watching it in a stadium where one cannot even carry a bottle of water which is then overpriced to twelve times the cost of mineral water in the same container by the same container, the rip off by the cable operator looks almost benign.

    If sport brings out passion, the ads bring on rage, which is partly what has prompted the emergence of this article. Morne Morkel's taken a wicket but people would barely know it because by the time the ads were loudly harping into the delicate eardrum, Morkel was through even with his follow through and before the batsman's face could be deciphered, the coverage broke for loud ads again.

   If this is how cricket is to be watched, it is going to lose some valuable viewers because there is only so much one can do with a remote other than mute it after every over and be finger ready when the final ad is on air so as not to miss out on the action.

    As greedy broadcasters and cricket boards make deals, replays of the batsman getting out, the quick run of wickets fallen previously or of an injured player are quickly overlapped with ads. If earlier it was considered the bane of an incompetent broadcaster, it is becoming a seriously dangerous trend.

      It is perhaps high time that the commercial compulsions that make ads mandatory also make it mandatory for certain rules and regulations regarding cricket broadcasting come into place. At the rate it is going, it is no wonder that dish networks are now advertising their services claiming the viewer can watch cricket without annoying ads or interruptions.

   Can the ICC enforce decorum upon the official broadcaster in time for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 or are the viewers doomed?