One night before Super Sunday, it seemed as if Times Now, the hollering flagship of Bennett, Coleman & Company (BCCL) and their stable of newspapers, will have the vicarious pleasure of hogging credit for felling N Srinivasan.

But the cement maker hadn’t been obliging the rest of the cricketing community for nothing.

Not only did he not give up; by Sunday morning, a few hours before the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) babus met at a Chennai hotel, Arnab Goswami, the channel’s boss, seemed to throw the towel. “Fixed Match,” was his title on the channel.

It was a giveaway that things weren’t going as per the channel’s liking.

So was the news that prime ministerial aspirant Arun Jaitley and key Rahul Gandhi satrap Rajeev Shukla won’t deign to come to Chennai.

Though Arnab had read the tea leaves, he let loose a cricket expert, one Boria Majumdar, to make something out of the lost cause. At one stage, the gent suggested that India’s cricket-loving public might want to lynch BCCI members! Lynch, hello!! The pronouncement unsettled even a rabble rowser of Arnab’s class. Majumdar had to be firmly shut up and the ball lobbed back to the more seasoned Navika Kumar.

In between, the more restrained NDTV 24x7 kept their options open. They and arch-rivals CNN-IBN went with a prominent question mark, “Endgame Srinivasan?”

It is today that CNN-IBN lead anchorman, Rajdeep Sardesai, showed that cricketing pedigree translates to dignified television journalism. The son of former test opener Dilip Sardesai was several steps ahead in the game, quoting SMS updates from the meeting just as Arnab was, but mind you, without the chest thumping and a visible agenda!

My takeaway from the television coverage on these channels was that Arnab may be the most well meaning and nationalistic and all that blah, but he should be advised not to get so shrill and personal that he puts people off. The campaign that Times Now ran against Srinivasan, unwittingly, helped the BCCI boss!

Here’s how:

First, thanks to incessant war cries and irritating promos on how Times Now led the pack, the focus on deeper questions got lost.

For example, did the BCCI folks meeting Sunday have the authority in the first place to give Srinivasan the boot? Evidently they didn’t, a fact that wasn’t given any play until the game was over after an hour and a half.

In fact, Srinivasan began the meeting pooh-poohing any intention to resign and in the absence of requisite powers with his colleagues, he got away lightly with “stepping aside” until the probe about spot fixing and the role of his son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) was completed.

Second, those of us who had any interest in the world outside of cricket, Indian Premier League, or Srinivasan’s machinations felt it’s better to make better use of our time and return when the results were out.

”#Arnab still gunning for the Srini! Lay off man! Be a graceful loser,” tweeted Ravindra Rao, a banker.

Sridhar Doss, another tweeple went a step further: “Now that srinivasan is staying #arnab should take moral responsibility and resign.”

Having been there, I realise that deeper questions are too boring for TV. For example, what will Srinivasan, listed as one of the owners of CSK, do when the three-member probe panel summons him for deposition? A strong panel of lawyers needs to be invoked to debate key legal and fiduciary issues on this one, including the role of key satraps Majumdar and Arnab were banking upon till the death overs.

If, in fact, Srinivasan does appear before the probe panel, how will/won’t conflict of interest kick in even if he has “stepped aside” for Jagmohan Dalmiya as BCCI president? Who, by the way, will be the third member, not that one of them has quit from his BCCI office? Or has he?

Then, what is the legal position if an employee of the franchise – that the son-in-law seemingly was in some shape and form- exceeds his brief? Is the owner liable to all his actions?

Clearly, is every father-in-law (or mother-in-law, don’t get me wrong, this column isn’t about other famous sons-in-laws!) is responsible for every action of their son’s/daughter’s spouse?

The right question is expose what they did on their own account and how exactly is the conflict of interest different from Lait Modi’s while he was both commissioner of IPL and co-owner of Rajasthan Royals? Wish Messrs Majumdar and Arnab spent a minute or two proving that angle in Srinivasan’s saga. Rather, they ended up punching their opponent so indiscriminately that he emerged with far more sympathy than he deserved. Once the punches ran out, everyone became the villain: Arun Jaitley, Anurag Thakur, Rajeev Shukla, Niranjan Shah, Jagmohan Dalmia, Shivlal Yadav….etc, etc.. I switched to “Jab Tak Hai Jaan” showing on Set Max (irony, irony!) after making a humble pitch for Arnab as BCCI chief and Majumdar for the IPL job. Me and those who RTd hope the venerable BCCL would let them go!