Monday morning, driving back to Scotland, basking in the glow of having witnessed Andy Murray’s latest Wimbledon success and the telephone rang.
“We’re doing a radio ‘phone-in this morning on the subject of whether tennis could replace football as Scotland’s national sport and wonder what your thoughts are on that,” said the caller.
The reply was to the effect that there could be few more frivolous discussions to mark Murray’s success given the ridiculous obsession in Scotland with a sport we are not very good at, which only encouraged the researcher who then asked if I would be interested in coming on to the show.
Suffice to say, to borrow a phrase used by other media organs that too often play to the lowest common denominator, I made my excuses and left the discussion at that point, not least because the call came from Radio Scotland, the station that does more than any other to feed this obsession with mediocre sporting fare.
Countless hours, every midweek evening from August to May and much of the weekend, are spent discussing the minutiae of Scottish football with pundits passionately espousing their views on why this week’s managerial failures should lose their jobs (on which note is it impish to wonder who will be first to face the guns this season?)
Those defending their output will point to increased coverage of rugby in recent years and attention occasionally paid to other sports, while the Beeb have also been known to make the point that it is not their responsibility to build audiences for sport, but that they merely require to respond to public demand.
That would be a pretty decent argument from a commercial perspective, but as a licence fee funded public service broadcaster the BBC has a wider responsibility and there could no more useful role for them to play in that regard than helping improve the health of the nation by encouraging the creation of a different environment which offers opportunities for all youngsters to pursue their interests and discover their sporting talents.
My understanding is that there are people in Radio Scotland who are raising the same issues internally. We wish them the best of luck in getting the organisation to play its part in seeking to bring about the cultural change required which, with all due respect, is a far more serious issue than ‘phone-in fodder.
And Another Thing...
On the subject of public service, Rory McIlroy did the Olympics a favour this week by telling it like it is in terms of why golf, like tennis, football, rugby and basketball, to name but a few, should have no place at the world’s greatest multi-sports gathering.
Olympic officials have sought to strengthen their brand, because that is what it has become, by becoming as all-encompassing as possible when it comes to the world’s most popular sports, but instead they have devalued it.
The status of the Olympics is predicated upon winning a gold medal in their particular discipline being the ultimate achievement for those taking part.
Rory’s honesty in admitting that it will never match winning a major golf championship just as Andy Murray’s Olympic gold medal, of which he is rightly proud, was in reality a stepping stone to his ultimate goals of winning first, a Grand Slam tournament at the US Open and then, biggest of them all, his Wimbledon title.
The counter-argument is that the two need not be compared, but after British Olympic team member Justin Rose accused McIlroy of a slip of the tongue when saying he would watch the Olympics but, not the golf, preferring instead ‘the sports that matter’ he gave away more than he intended when saying that alongside major championship success an Olympic medal would occupy ‘a little niche’ of its own.
The ‘sports that matter’, in Olympic terms, those McIlroy was referring to, are the likes of track and field, gymnastics, swimming and weight-lifting in which participants gear all their planning and preparation towards the opportunity to achieve greatness which comes along only once every four years.
As officials seek to assess which sports to retain in the Olympics that is the only measure that should count.
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And Finally...
Monday evening, heading out for an evening walk with the dogs, we were stopped by an Englishman on his first visit to Dunblane who was seeking directions to the cathedral in which the bells were ringing, presumably to mark the local boy’s Wimbledon success.
He certainly thought so and, having travelled up from London while the men’s singles final was taking place, was very excited about being in Andy Murray’s home town.
“He must be our greatest ever sportsman,” he said, before unnecessarily apologetically adding: “I say ‘our’… at least for just now.”
In short, while many of us have long considered the Wimbledon champion to be the finest sportsman Scotland has ever produced, this view from south of the border was that he is now the very best of British. We were in no mood to argue.
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