Testing times for T20 fans

Jisha Surya
First Published : 06 May 2010

When cricket lovers in other parts of the country sacrifice their sleep and remain glued to TV sets to watch the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup, majority of fans in the capital city are a disadvantageous lot. They are denied the chance to be part of the cricketing frenzy, thanks to the indifferent attitude of the major cable distributor.
Owing to the bitter fight between the Asianet Cable Services (ACS) and pay channels, including ESPN, Star Cricket and Star Sports, these channels were disconnected by the operator without any notice. While the ACS officials are citing the irresponsible behaviour of pay channels as the reason for the current crisis, the consumers, especially cricket fans, are terming it as cheating as majority of them had paid for the annual subscription that includes pay channels.
When contacted, ACS vice-president Ramanathan refused to comment on the issue stating that the matter was sub judice. ‘’We will get the details of the court order on the issue on Thursday. Then we will inform the public our stand,’’ he said.
ACV subscriber and state cricketer Reiphy Vincent Gomes said missing T20 matches was a great loss for a player like him. ‘’Now India has entered into Super Eight. So every match is important. When contacted, the ACV officials said they are providing Doordarshan to view Indian matches. But that is not enough. Now, I am planning to switch to some satellite channels,’’ he said.
Several irate viewers have lodged complaints with the website of the Indian Consumer Complaints Forum. In one such complaint, another subscriber Sreejith states that he felt cheated and believes it as a trick to support DTH service providers.
Unable to miss the match, Sreepathi, a staunch cricket fan, has switched to Tata Sky. ‘’I rang the cable operator and complained on the issue when I noticed the matter a month ago. They said that a case was going on and the matter would become clear by May 5,’’ he said.
IT executive Anoop R D said this was a matter which should be taken to the consumer court. ‘’We have already paid for one-year subscription. That was for all channels, including ESPN and Star. Then how could they unanimously take such a decision,’’ he said.
ACV is providing Doordarshan, which shows the matches played by India.
However, cricket fans are not happy as the semi-finals are nearing and they would miss more actions. They say, if it was unaffordable, the ACS could have subscribed to these channels for just one or two weeks so that the viewers won’t miss the match.
jisha@expressbuzz.com