For Episode 3 we sit down with Mr Lalith Kalidas, a young sports journalist & editor. He’s just finished a stint with the iconic Sportstar Magazine and is looking to continue on with this passion driven profession of his. Profiled on the web as someone who primarily writes on cricket and loves watching tennis, with other interests including playing cricket, relishing long drives and having an affinity for photography!
Journalism is a challenging field, and it gets tougher if you’re in a niche area like sport, where being at the top of one’s game usually means getting noticed & trusted within the fraternity. Not one of those ‘bankable’ professions, it has more to do with building relationships with celebrated personalities before gradually beginning to opine and become a trusted media voice.
To start-off, salaries can be low and low-level journalistic work takes a lot of patience & dedication, often driven by an intense passion to present our sport. Once ensconced into the system, navigating a path to professional success is not easy and depends on networking the right contacts, delivering consistently on the quality of work, gaining acceptability within the community, and fighting hard to stay relevant in the modern age. So, what does it take to be someone like a Lalith Kalidas?
We sat down to speak with him about his profession, on how he managed to become a sports journalist, life as a reporter, advice to budding reporters, memories of working with the Sportstar, anecdotes or anything he feels he wants to put out there for our pod audience.
Thanks for listening!