Sports commentators get so wrapped up with what they think is happening that they increasingly miss what actually is happening. The BBC were so excited to get any play at yesterday's Wimbledon that the chap calling the Sharapova-Sugiyama match enthused "the crowd is absolutely gripped by this enthralling contest" over some shots of a woman yawning, somebody else stretching, a small boy clearly asking his dad whether they could go now and a teenager on a mobile. It was a fairly good match but at most major sporting occasions nowadays there are as many people interested in the occasion as there are in the sport. I went to the England-West Indies Twenty20 game at the Oval on Thursday and for every bloke wrapped up in the action there was one who was trying to see how much lager he could carry and another on the phone to his office.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
There's a breathless hush in the close tonight
Sports commentators get so wrapped up with what they think is happening that they increasingly miss what actually is happening. The BBC were so excited to get any play at yesterday's Wimbledon that the chap calling the Sharapova-Sugiyama match enthused "the crowd is absolutely gripped by this enthralling contest" over some shots of a woman yawning, somebody else stretching, a small boy clearly asking his dad whether they could go now and a teenager on a mobile. It was a fairly good match but at most major sporting occasions nowadays there are as many people interested in the occasion as there are in the sport. I went to the England-West Indies Twenty20 game at the Oval on Thursday and for every bloke wrapped up in the action there was one who was trying to see how much lager he could carry and another on the phone to his office.
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I fear it ever thus isn't there that famous vitorian picture "derby day" where evryone is more interested in anything but the race which pictured small in one of the corners.
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