Jason Dasey, Sports Broadcaster, ESPN STAR Sports

“You should never underestimate a journalist’s power, who do a good amount of research, learning, can write a story, conduct an interview and handle production.”

Jason Dasey is one of Australia’s most traveled and most experienced sports broadcasters. A career that began as a weekend sports correspondent for Australian Associated Press as a teenager in the late 1970s has flourished over a quarter of a century and embraced three continents. Jason brings a wealth of experience to ESPN STAR Sports, having earlier served as a successful broadcaster with BBC and CNN.

Dasey, a popular face on ESPN STAR Sports, currently hosts SportsCenter, an exclusive daily sports news product. He sees the exclusive India focus of the show as an exciting challenge.

The attention to cricket in SportsCenter is the other attraction for Dasey. He enjoys analysing India's cricket performance with regular guests on the programme. Shy of saying who his favourite guest is, Dasey admits sharing a special rapport with Navjot Singh Sidhu and Geoffrey Boycott and likes the way both “tell it straight”.

Born and raised in Australia, Dasey signaled his journalistic ambitions at a very young age. By the time he was offered a prestigious cadetship at Australia’s oldest newspaper, ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’, the then 17-year-old already had more than 300 published articles under his belt on a wide variety of subjects in more than a dozen publications.

Dasey loves everything Indian – be it food (incidentally, developed in London) or cricket. He has now been a vegetarian for about 13 years now. His favourite holiday destination is Goa, which he visited during his last trip to India in February 2001. Dasey has a ‘sporty’ conversation with Malini Menon of exchange4media on the plans ahead.

Q. What is ESPN-STAR Sports’ criterion for selecting commentators?

A good journalistic background, passion for the subject and a smooth, engaging presentation style are the three essential parameters through which the channel produces commentators.

Q. How has the response been from the advertisers?

We have a lot of loyal sponsors with us. Samsung has been our sponsor for the news shows in ESPN-STAR Sports and the company also sponsors the cricket ratings. We are very happy with our advertisers and they have stuck to us consistently.

Q. Who would make a good commentator from the current Indian team?

Sachin Tendulkar is my personal favourite. He is the no 1 player for me because of his humility, talent, and endurance. As a commentator, I think he would be more in lines of Sunil Gavaskar, and he really wouldn’t waste words, cutting right to the chase.

Q. How did your love affair with India begin?

I lived in the UK for seven years and was with BBC and Sky. Living in London, I think my love affair with India began. I made a lot of Indian friends and started loving Indian food. This turned me into a vegetarian and I started feeling sick eating meat in the UK.

Q. What is the purpose of your visit to India?

It’s a mixture of both. It’s sort of a working holiday. We are doing a news story on SportsCenter on the new Indian coach Greg Chappell. We are here to analyse how Chappell can enhance the Indian cricket team’s performance as also the team’s preparation for the Zimbabwe trip. As a young journalist, I was working with a media organisation in Sydney when Greg Chappell was a player. And now it has come full circle with me interviewing him again as an Indian coach 20 years later.

Q. As a commentator and sharp critic, how would you rate Chappell as Indian coach?

I think he will do a great job for India. I don’t think it’s going to be very easy for him. Chappell has been a star like Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar back in Australia. He would know what it means for Indian stars to experience this stardom. John Wright did succeed to a certain extent, but Chappell’s coaching would be good. Chappell has an aura around him and most Indian cricketers are in awe of him. He is a superstar.

Moreover, Chappell has a right focus for the Indian cricket team and is pretty media savvy. Even during the PETA scandal, he gave it off to the media and could not stand anything like that. John Wright’s emphasis has been on fitness whereas Chappell’s focus is more on psychology and technique. Chappell has been the commentator for ESPN-STAR Sports between 2003 and 2004 when India was playing against Australia. It was at that time that I noticed the respect Indian cricketers had for him. I remember there was an instance when Chappell came on to the mike and said, “Hey Rahul, this is Greg”, and you could see Rahul Dravid’s face filled with awe. I can never forget his expression because Dravid is usually very composed when he is talking to Harsha Bhogle or Ravi Shastri.

Q. How do you think is the new Indian commentator, Anand Narsimhan, shaping up?

I have been training Anand Narsimhan, the participant who won the Harsha ki Khoj contest. Narsimhan has been doing a couple of shows with me and I have been trying to help him out in the ESPN-STAR Sports studio and training him to be comfortable presenting news day after day. It’s one thing to win a contest and a totally different ballgame to commentate on a regular basis. Hence, my effort is primarily to make him comfortable while presenting the shows. It’s been interesting working with him and we have become good friends. Narsimhan is a hard working guy.

Q. Lately, the channel lost the rights for the French Open. Do you think that somewhere the viewership is getting affected?

Well, it’s a clear indication of the fact that it is becoming intensely competitive, which is a healthy sign. If you look at India, there is competition among channels and each of them is trying to beat the other. However, at ESPN-STAR Sports we have always had the advantage of maintaining a certain level of production standards. A lot of other channels are putting out international beam and not making a serious effort to take broadcasting into the 21st century. ESPN-STAR Sports has always tried to raise the bar when it comes to production standards and programmes. We have come up with innovative programmes like SportsCenter and now we are starting a new one called Mad About Sports, which is all about how passionate are you about sports. Of course, there are some challenges when it comes to telecast rights, but I am sure the channel will come through.

Q. How do you perceive the Indian market?

I think there is always space in the Indian market no matter what rights you win or lose. India has good amount of viewers for news programmes. As far as I can see, some of the news channels in India have, in fact, created a special sports segment. However, I believe that Sportsline and SportsCenter are taking the sports genre far more seriously. For instance, even when we lost the rights to the India-Pakistan series, ESPN-STAR Sports got considerable ratings airing just the analysis. The reason for this was that although we lost the rights, we still had Wasim Akram, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, and Geoffrey Boycott with us. The biggest names in the cricketing world were with us analysing the match with just highlights.

Q. Among the existing cricketers, whom would you rate as the best commentator?

I think it would be Ravi Shastri. This is because Ravi is a dedicated professional and he used to listen a lot of radio as a kid. Ever since, he has been practising and practising. He has bagged an award, too, for the best Indian sports broadcaster. Then there are of course Sunil Gavaskar and Wasim Akram.

Q. What is your role in the innovation that goes into SportsCenter?

We keep adding more analysis, especially if there is a significant cricket match. I sit down with my senior producer and decide the graphics that we can use and analyse. Sometimes, we sit down with Geoffrey Boycott and Wasim Akram and discuss the specific things that we want to talk about, and then the producer and I sit down to select the best graphics to use to illustrate their point. A lot of thought goes into the selection of a video, where you have to highlight a particular action that really turned around the match.

Q. How well did Harsha ki Khoj work as a programming success and do you intend to come up with more contests?

Harsha ki Khoj has been very successful and we have received great reviews for this format. We are very happy about it and want to make it bigger and better next time. In fact, what we are planning for next year is a contest that would cover the whole of Asia, which would include broadcasters in South Asia, South East Asia and perhaps China. For Harsha ki Khoj, the judges included the likes of Wasim Akram, Ravi Shastri, Harsha Bhogle, John Dykes, Darain Shahidi, Arun Lal and Perizaad Zorabian. Now we are planning something bigger and better. It’s going to be called Dream Job, which started in the US four years back and did quite well. This contest should happen early next year.

Q. Do cricketers turning to commentators make a good bet?

I don’t think it really matters, and there is room for both cricketers and journalists. I think it would be sad if we reach a stage when it would be just international cricketers doing my job. I think there is always place for good journalists. You should never underestimate a journalist’s power, who do a good amount of research, learning, can write a story, conduct an interview and handle production. Somebody like Harsha Bhogle has reached this stage after years of experience, learning, knowledge and journalistic expertise. You can’t just play 100 test matches and 150 ODIs and beat somebody like Harsha Bhogle. So, it is about striking the right balance. However, there are people like Ravi Shastri and Wasim Akram who are very good at what they do.

Q. Was it a smooth transition for you from general reporting to specialised reporting?

It was a smooth transition because a sport is my hobby and I enjoy reporting news. Moreover, it’s good to have a background in general news, politics and arts because it makes you well rounded with what is happening around. For instance, someone like Harsha is always aware of what is happening. I personally believe that a good news reporter should be aware of all the domains and not just be restricted to a specialisation. My general news background facilitates me to be comfortable with any news report, be it on Kashmir or any sport.

Q. Any reason why soccer is dominating ESPN-STAR Sports?

Soccer is a world game, and World Cup is taking place in Germany in 2006. I believe that India’s awareness of soccer is becoming greater and greater, and there are viewers who are keenly interested in watching the game. Also, the Confederation Cup (mini-World Cup) is also something that is watched with great interest.

Q. What are the major assignments that you have taken up this year?

I have just been involved with a tsunami fund raising event in Phuket. There was a rugby tournament that was organised and $50,000 was raised to help out the tsunami victims. We also had a cricket match organised in Singapore, where two ESPN anchors formed the team, played together and raised the funds for the tsunami-hit areas. I don’t know about what the situation is in Chennai, but would be more than glad to help in any way.

Q. What is the tie-up like between ESPN and STAR Sports? Are you sharing content, resources, etc?

ESPN and STAR Sports used to be competing networks in Asia, primarily South East Asia and India. Then eight years ago, the two channels merged. ESPN is from Disney and STAR Sports from Murdoch, and they found that they were competing against each other for sports rights. The channels realised that it would be much better to work together and created this unique partnership. ESPN was based in Singapore, while STAR Sports was based in Hong Kong. When the channels merged, STAR Sports shifted to Singapore. There is a sharing that takes place as the two channels are equal partners. So, we have the best of ESPN from the US and the best of STAR Sports, which is Sky in the UK and Fox in the US.

Q. Is there any content differentiation between ESPN and STAR Sports?

I think in India, STAR Sports is more Hindi driven now. Also, you will find more of Hindi commentary on STAR Sports and the channel is focusing on cricket and hockey. In fact, Formula One is getting Tamil commentary from Chennai. Can you imagine an international network catering to Indian languages? This shows that ESPN-STAR Sports is very serious about the Indian market. However, STAR Sports is catering more to the Indian languages whereas ESPN is more of an international, English brand.

Q. What are the production standards that you have set for yourself?

Well, we have the best professionals from the UK, the US and Australia, who are attempting to bring the standards of most countries to the Indian market. The production standards are what set us apart from other sports networks broadcasting in India. We are paying more attention and putting up studios around international events with the experts and presenters rather than putting out international feeds.