There are possibly a hundred reasons that are working in the background in my head, which led me to think that this is something I should do. But chief among them, is the lack of anybody closer home writing on motorcycle racing. Two-wheelers are truly symbols of freedom in India, especially for small town kids growing up. And I'm sure that just as there are literally hundreds of motorcyclists for every car on the road, there must be hundreds of MotoGP fans for every F1 fan in India. But unfortunately, mainstream print media here does not cover MotoGP the way that it even covers F1.
Again, why is that? In the matters of its coverage of sports around the world, I think the traditional Indian print media followed the west. And it was the west closer home. The ones who had been here and shaped some, if not all of our recent history. And on their scale, Formula 1 comes a couple of rungs below the likes of soccer, cricket and tennis. And MotoGP still lower, perhaps being billed even below other motorcyle racing events such as the BSB and the WSBK.
There is extensive coverage by media based out of continental Europe. But then, they seldom write in English. As for the US of A, the popularity of the sport has been on it's way down since the Rainey, Schwantz era. And then there is Australia. For a country that has produced talents like Mick Doohan, Casey Stoner and now the promising Jack Miller, I think press coverage reflects the ground reality. Reduced viewership as result of "confusing to me at least" airing rights. More on that, some other time perhaps.
There is extensive coverage by media based out of continental Europe. But then, they seldom write in English. As for the US of A, the popularity of the sport has been on it's way down since the Rainey, Schwantz era. And then there is Australia. For a country that has produced talents like Mick Doohan, Casey Stoner and now the promising Jack Miller, I think press coverage reflects the ground reality. Reduced viewership as result of "confusing to me at least" airing rights. More on that, some other time perhaps.
When I turn to the worldwide web in the hopes of finding incisive reviews, race reports and race analyses around the sport, very few results turn up. And whatever do turn up, are mostly sterile listings of numbers which do not convey the excitement that is motorcycle racing at all. A notable exception is the motomatters website, where David Emmett is extremely thorough in his approach, and the entire racing season is covered in crisp beautiful detail including a fair amount of narrative on what happens behind the scenes. And for any MotoGP fan, that, I believe should be the first stop for the weekend update. And could in all likelihood be the only stop required.
But there must be a few like me, who just are information junkies. They need more than one dose, more than one point of view, to stop the tics, the nervous twitching. So for lack of an alternative, I decided to create one. I will write. And I will write from my perspective that would be limited by what TV coverage offers. I will try and consolidate information from the racing world that is already sprinkled around the www. But I will try and provide one more option to the Indian racing fan. Let the racing begin...
