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Collage Maker-11-Jan-2023-11

Flashback: The 188-Run Knock That Saw Sunil Gavaskar Lording It Over Lords

Indian Legend Sunil Gavaskar’s column in Mid-Day on Fitness and passing Yo-Yo & Dexa tests being paramount for being selected for India reminds me of a story recounted by him when he played for Rest Of World vs MCC at Lord’s in 1987, the match which had 22 of the world’s finest, locking horns to mark MCC Bicentenary. The maestro had arrived in advance and had reported for practice at the hallowed ground with a few teammates. The manager of ROW Clive Lloyd saw his compatriot (from ROW vs Australia, 1972) sitting comfortably behind the nets while the other players were doing laps of the ground. Walking up to Gavaskar, who was peacefully reading a book, Lloyd asked him if he had done his ‘laps’ and if he’d like to join his mates for a few more. “I’m with them….mentally,” replied the little master with a smile. Two days later, after fielding for 133.1 overs, Gavaskar notched up 188 runs against an attack comprising Malcolm Marshall, Richard Hadlee, Clive Rice, John Emburey & Ravi Shastri. The monumental hundred, in his last first-class match, had his name inscribed on the Lord’s honours board – the only achievement that was missing in his illustrious career!

TRENDS & VIEWS

Technology Cannot Disrupt Original Content Provider: Short Post Editor

They say time flies. How true!  Today is our #SecondAnniversary. Two years back at the height of Covid-19 Pandemic when lockdown was the way of life we took a leap of faith and launched Short Post (Jan 28, 2021), the first-of-its-kind website in the country that focuses on Authentic Gossip. The Oxymoron is deliberate. Well, the response has been quite encouraging. That’s what has kept us going. Till date we have posted close to 2000 stories in the areas of Politics, Business, Entertainment and Sports. Each insightful story of around 225 words has been contributed by Senior Editors. There is a sense of satisfaction of creating a new segment in the market – authentic gossip — and in the process creating a brand (in a limited sense), creating demand (readers) and creating supply (writers). Well known advertisers — IDFC FIRST Bank, ICICI Lombard – supported us.  And that really boosted our confidence. Thank you!

So here we are raring to go.  But, when I look at the media landscape the disruption is indeed fast and furious. Technology is playing a very big role in how content will be consumed. In the past, we have seen how social media has disrupted the media world. Now, everybody is saying the same thing about ChatGPT. It has reached 1 million users in five days. Its scorching pace of growth is indeed frightening and will disrupt the media industry big time. My limited argument is can it do investigative stories, write gossip items using the digital world ecosystem. Unlikely. Clearly, the original content has to be created first — only then can ChatGPT do the magic. That’s what we promise to do – focus on original content.

Before I sign off, I am reminded of an old advertisement of the early sixties: “Avis is only No.2 in rent a cars. So we try harder”. Likewise I can say, we are two years old and we are trying even harder to be relevant to you readers.