Dinesh Kamath talks about his role as journalist

Today I'm playing the role of an Acting Editor. I've not yet become Editor officially. I'll consider myself as Editor only when I'm officially made an Editor. Till then I don't consider myself as an Editor. But I do consider myself as an Acting Editor because I have been literally playing the role of an Acting Editor since a long, long time.

After I had finished my college, my ambition was to become a columnist and cartoonist. Today I feel pleased to say that I'm both successful columnist and successful cartoonist. So my dream is fulfilled. When I achieved success as columnist and cartoonist, my critics were saying that I was columnist and cartoonist at local level only. But these critics had to shut their traps when I put many of my cartoons and columns on my Blog and many people, not only from New Bombay (Navi Mumbai) but also all over the world, went through my blog and appreciated them in a big way. Blog has made me an International Journalist. For your information, I'm also in the Googles in a big way. I thank those people who are in charge of Blog and Googles for giving me the support I badly needed. Today, I feel tremendously satisfied as far as my career of a journalist is concerned.

I should have become a prominent journalist at the age of twenty-one. But I was not given the break I needed when I was in my twenties. I got that big break at the age of forty five. Since then I never looked back and went on to make up for the time I lost. Today, as a journalist, I've contributed more than almost all the other journalists who, I'm sure, must have not contributed as much as I did during their entire career. I feel triumphant today! Bye!

From Dinesh Kamath's stock of photographs

Acting Editor of Newsband Dinesh Kamath is to the left while DTP Operator of Newsband Ajimon is to the right. These are two men who kept the newspaper Newsband going for last more than four years. While Dinesh Kamath tackled the news aspect, Ajimon took care of the technical aspect. Sub-editor of Newsband Prakash Koshy clicked the photograph. Venue is the office of newspaper Newsband at Vashi, New Bombay (Navi Mumbai).

Dinesh Kamath's cartoon on 'Puno and Fena' created directly on computer

Dinesh Kamath's cartoon on 'Puno and Fena' created directly on computer

Dinesh Kamath's cartoon on 'Puno and Fena' created directly on computer

Dinesh Kamath's cartoon on 'Puno and Fena' created directly on computer

Dinesh Kamath's editorial tha was published in Newsband

Sport is the most difficult business to run
Cricket is staring at a possible standoff between the BCCI, ICC and the UPA government over tax issues likely to gather steam in the weeks ahead. Sharad Pawar, who once headed both the ICC and BCCI, had agreed to a condition before the World Cup whereby BCCI agreed to pay any tax the government levied on the ICC for staging the competition. Pawar, a key member of the Union cabinet, may have overestimated his ability to seek a tax waiver from the government if the issue turned problematic. However, under the ambit of the new sports policy legislation being pushed through by the sports ministry, such a tax exemption appears unlikely and the BCCI might soon be faced with a Rs 100 crore-plus tax burden, one that the board will desperately seek to avoid.
While confronting Pawar for agreeing to such a clause in the first place, the BCCI and ICC are seeking refuge in the tested IOC policy demanding 'no state intervention in the functioning of an autonomous sports body'. Under its guise any form of government intervention can be deemed unacceptable, allowing the BCCI to stave off further attempts by the sports ministry to bring its functioning under the tax ambit.
Interestingly, all of these cases stem from the inability to deal with the ill effects of excessive commercialisation. None of the problems cited above will ever affect a sport or a mega event that continues to be unattractive to the market. While monetisation is central to the success of modern sport and large sporting spectacles, the need to strike a balance between the requirements of the market and that of 'pure sport' is at the root of good governance.
Unless the interests of the ordinary sports fan - currently the most neglected constituency across all commercially successful sport and mega events - is made a priority, problems such as the ones mentioned will only escalate. Extraordinary sporting performances too, it can be conjectured, will fail to stop such escalation for otherwise the Commonwealth Games 2010 would have been remembered for the 101 medals India won and not for all the corruption and malpractice surrounding the event. Not without reason is it being said in management circles that 'sport' as 'business' is the most difficult of all businesses to run.