Watching the World Indoor Athletic Championships on Channel 4 raises mixed emotions.
On the one hand, it's a definite relief to be spared the inane commentary and comments of the BBC team, led by the unbelievably moronic Paul Dickinson and most horribly backed up by the appalingly repetitive and embarrassingly banal 'after-race' interviews conducted by someone named Jones. On the other, it's been replaced by a coverage interrupted every few minutes by adverts, accompanied by an annoying jingle, as well as a commentary that is probably even worse than Dickinson's, plus the manic contributions of Dean Macey.
On balance, I prefer the BBC, but only just. None of the commentators actually comment fairly, they all concentrate on the attributes of any UK athletes involved. None of them seem to actually comment on the events taking place, either; in fact, they seem to be in some sort of netherworld where what they expect, or hope, will happen actually takes place. They all exaggerate the abilities and likelihood of success of British athletes to a point of idiocy; they seem to be fascinated by the supposed excellence of a mass of second raters as if they, themselves, were carrying some sort of flag for our nation, rather than providing an unbiased commentary on a sporting event. Where now is the wonderful Bill MacClaren who commented so superbly every time Scotland lost at Rugby, almost denying his own patriotism ?
As if this is not enough, we are now being asked to celebrate the success of numerous 'British' athletes who are nothing of the sort. The ridiculous rules that govern 'nationality' in the sporting world seem to allow people to switch national allegiance at will. Today we have a British Womens' team captain who is really an American; we have, of course, been expected to rejoice that she also won a medal. We then have a female 400 metre runner who, not long ago, was also running in the US having been brought up there, and a male 400 metre runner who seems to have chosen us because he wasn't good enough to get into the US team. A gold medal has been won by an ex-Cuban and there are many more whom we will be expected to cheer on at the Olympics in August.
Sadly, this is not a new occurrence. For many years, we have imported foreigners and proudly presented them as representatives of our nation. Cricket has probably been the worst offender with the importation of numerous South Africans over the last 40 and more years, but it has not been alone. The mania attached to the 'London Olympics' has encouraged a drive to find anyone, anywhere, who might be able to win a medal for the UK to be targeted and brought here, under any pretext that can be dreamt up; what odds that Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic will be British by August ?
Personally, I can find no national joy in the success of a Cuban winning a gold medal under the flag of the UK, nor of an American winning a silver. I want to see genuine, home-grown UK athletes winning medals, or at least, performing at their best. I want to see the brilliance of Jessica Ennis, Rebecca Adlington and Ben Ainslie and even of Mo Farah who grew up here, not of some recent import in a UK vest. Anything else would be a fraud on our nation and an offence to our own youngsters.
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