Blogstars

I remain surprised that there seem to be no bloggers among "celebrities" (not bloggers who are celebrities, but noted people who blog :-) ). I'm sure if the likes of Rahul Dravid or Harsha Bhogle or Ruskin Bond or Upamanyu Chatterjee or even the juniors Deora/Pilot were to blog, they would find their blogs being subscribed to in large numbers.

Why would their blogs be instantly successful? Because readers are thirsty for inside information, backroom insights, perhaps even mundane trivial peeks into their worlds. In fact anyone who provides these tidbits (for which the mainstream press wouldn't be able to spare column inches) would find a large audience. I'm sure the likes of Amit Varma and his fellow Cricinfo bloggers notice a surge in their page views whenever they're covering a cricket match live or are in a position to talk about the game from much closer. (Which is a good time to ask: why has the Cricinfo blog never returned from vacation?)

Some of these celebs have columns or are interviewed often. Those are usually along set lines. Many columns, especially the sports ones, are obviously ghost-written (imagine Javed Miandad using all those fancy words) and run-of-the-mill, so those have lost both credibility & ability to interest. The agents of some of the more articulate ones may well point them in the direction of the blog. Blogs are less polished and raw which works in their favour.

Two issues: quality and credibility. Blogs need to be updated at a consistent frequency and must not seem to be contrived or even too politically correct. The content also has to offer novelty and issues that aren't in the forefront of mainstream media. I'm sure these "celeb" bloggers would make money from selling adspace on their blogs.

Of course, the online world is notorious for attracting riff-raff (just look at the comments left behind on online articles in major portals). But it represents a unprecedented opportunity to get close to fans and others by pushing content instead of the regular media extracting it from them.

I haven't checked it in ages, but Bob Woolmer's site used to have a semi-blog like page where he'd post notes on the Pakistan team. I am really surprised no big name has actually plunged into this space (I don't know of anyone famous doing so in other parts of the world as well) This would be a little different that say a "News" page on their personal websites or an occasional entry. It has to be frequent, informative and from the heart.

Perhaps these people would prefer the relative security and safety (not to mention the better returns) of a newspaper/website column. I don't say that the blogging community needs such people to raise the profile of blogging in general or that their type is sorely missed. It's just that as I said at the beginning, I'm surprised no one seems to plunged into it yet. Or perhaps they have done so (even anonymously) and I haven't realised yet!