The Times of India (TOI), Hyderabad edition carried the headline on the first page “Team Hyderabad are the Nizams of IPL.” The web-edition of TOI carries the headline “Hyderabad turn IPL upside down with title win .” It is common knowledge, that the team which has won the IPL trophy in 2009 is Deccan Chargers. Yet, TOI never used the word Deccan Chargers anywhere in the news or in the headlines, including the IPL table which it used to publish daily. It is true that Deccan Chargers is Team Hyderabad, just the same Royal Challengers Bangalore is Team Bangalore. Yet, TOI used Royal Challengers Bangalore, but never Deccan Chargers. I presume that TOI decided not to use the correct name, Deccan Chargers for the simple reason that Deccan Chargers is owned by Deccan Chronicle, a rival newspaper of TOI. The short name for Deccan Chargers will be DC, which is the acronym for Deccan Chronicle. In Hyderabad, most recognise the abbreviation DC as Deccan Chronicle. By using the phrase Team Hyderabad instead of DC, TOI did not wish to give any mileage to Deccan Chronicle, even in the news.
Now to me this is pettiness. If TOI really did not wish to cover DC it could have given limited coverage to IPL. It did not. It knew that the young readership of TOI prefers IPL over elections, yet it had to stoop to such levels so as to not give any coverage to a competitor, even obliquely.
- G. Mohan
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