For the last two weeks I have been watching the hockey world cup on Ten Sports. I just finished watching the final, which was a nail-biting contest between the two best teams in the world - Germany with an almost inpenetrable defence, and Australia with a breathtaking offense. I am a big sports fan, but hockey has never ever been on my radar before this world cup. However these two weeks of hockey have captured my imagination like never before.
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The tournament had the best teams in the world competing for the ultimate prize in world hockey. The facilities were excellent. The pre-tournament promotion for the tournament was quite impressive. The TV coverage and live commentary teams were quite magnificient. And most surprising of all, the pre and post game studio shows during the TV coverage were quite outstanding.
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The pre and post game show for every match was anchored by Mayanti Langer. Mayanti is not just a pretty face - she is articulate, and understands her role perfectly. She puts some of her cricket peers to shame! Really. Mayanti's questions and interventions are timely, and appropriate. She has a great ability to extract the best from the experts on the show. However the stars on the show were Cedric D'Souza and Jagbir Singh - former Indian international players. Cedric and Jagbir were absolutely outstanding. They provided original insights, did a lot of homework for every game, and were generally right on the money with their observations. I must say that I learnt a lot about hockey listening to these guys.
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In contrast the first two IPL cricket games had Navjyot Singh Sidhu as the studio "expert". What a bloody joke! I prefer to watch NDTV News while the IPL Studio show is on. If we can get such great, articulate experts on hockey shows, why can't we get some halfway decent guys on the cricket shows? Instead we settle for jokers like Sidhu, Srinath, and Prasad. Really beats me. Where are you Sanjay Manjarekar?
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