BPL GC talks up production
Over the first seven days of the sixth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) that started on January 5, one of the major points of contention has been the overall quality of the broadcast. The initial absence of Ultra Edge, Snickometer or Hot Spot technology in the tournament's Decision Review System (DRS) suite grabbed headlines but besides that there were many instances of errors in the broadcast.
There have been numerous instances of commentators mispronouncing players' names and getting the names of fielding positions wrong. More seriously and embarrassingly, there have been significant graphical errors -- Comilla Victorians' Shohag Gazi was once identified as Abu Hider Rony; Mehedi Maruf's average was shown to be an inhuman 585 and on numerous occasions the runs required and balls remaining stats were incorrect, directly detracting from the viewers' experience of the product.
However, in a press conference held yesterday by BPL governing council (GC) member-secretary IH Mallick along with BPL technical committee chairman Jalal Yunus and BPL GC acting chairman Sheikh Sohel in Mirpur to address some of those issues, Mallick praised the improvement in the production of the tournament.
"This kind of technology can only be seen in the IPL final, semifinal and in the World Cup," Mallick said. "We have almost 35 cameras whereas previously we had 24; we are happy with the production."
Mallick tried to separate the graphical errors from the 'production' aspect, but relented when it was pointed out that 'production' meant the whole package that is broadcast. At numerous points, he had to admit that there were things that could be improved.
Aside from the DRS -- Ultra Edge was added yesterday -- the other issues are nothing new for a tournament in its sixth edition. It seemed that all the press conference proved yesterday was that more money has been spent this time around, but the planning and execution has been the same as previous editions.
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