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46.4 Overs: Rohit Sharma pulls a slower delivery off Taskin Ahmed through the square leg region for a boundary. It was the second quarter final of the 2015 ICC World Cup and India was well in command of the game against Bangladesh at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). But somewhere in the press box, a commentator of Cricinfo had missed the action – all of one ball. With millions across the world logged on to the website and little time to breathe between overs, the commentator was forced to copy-paste the content from its rival website – CricBuzz.
One Twitterati going by the handle name @sagarcasm, wasted no time in bringing that to the notice of people logged on to the social networking site. “This similarity was found out by one of my friends, Karan. He usually reads live commentary from the Cricbuzz app and checks the highlights from the ESPNCricinfo app. He accidentally stumbled upon this coincidence. Then he shared it with me,” he said.
Initially it led to confusion as to who culprit was, with CricBuzz stating that they had published the commentary first. It didn’t take too long for Cricinfo Editor Sambit Bal to admit on Twitter that their commentator had copied the content and as a result, had been sacked.
“Plagiarism is bad. I support originality too. But in this case, the plagiarism wasn’t planned. This commentator did it because he missed watching that particular delivery. He didn’t get the time to edit it because he had to move to the next delivery. The punishment could have been milder. Something like a suspension or fine,” Sagar further said in an exclusive interview with India.com.
While the original picture was retweeted by numerous people, the announcement of the commentator’s sacking led Twitteratis to plead with Bal for some leniency. Some even had harsh words to say to Sagar for costing the commentator his job.
“I usually tweet anything that I believe my followers would enjoy to read. This was something interesting. Because we never see rival brands doing something so similar. I expected a few retweets and some surprised replies. What happened later surprised me.”
“Majority of people who know about this case have empathized with me. I am thankful to them. Some people were of the opinion that I should tweet carefully. I have told them that I respect their opinion, but such things are beyond one’s control,” he further added.
The question is – in this fast paced world, how severe can the consequences of be. Slip ups are bound to happen in a corporate world. Much like a bad day in the office for a cricketer, commentators too have their off days. Plagiarism is a terrible crime in the field of journalism. But is sacking the only option?
He also said that Bal had assured him that the decision would be reconsidered following a mass plea from Twitteratis.
“Cricbuzz did reply to one of the tweets where they clarified that they didn’t mean any harm to the commentator. Sambit Bal, the Editor of Cricinfo has tweeted that he will reconsider his decision. Though, I don’t have any confirmation whether the commentator is still working for them or not. I have had no communication with the commentator,” he concluded.
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