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There’s so much nonsense talked these days about ‘diversity’, isn’t there? Politically correct Greenie types shooting their mouths off without even bothering to get all the facts.
Like people who’ve criticised Channel Nine’s commentary team for the upcoming Ashes series for being all-male. What these hasty killjoys didn’t realise when they made their ill-judged comments was that Channel Nine has a policy that happens to necessitate the team having this makeup.
The policy is very simple: the network insists, as per this article, that “only those who have played in the event being broadcast can commentate on it”.
You see? No conspiracy, no boys’ club, no entrenched culture of sexism. Just a simple policy: if you didn’t play in it, you con’t commentate on it.
It’s a policy to bring only the most insightful of analysis to each sporting event. For example, in the Ashes, the viewer benefits from insider knowledge, thanks to the experience of commentators like Test veteran Mark Nicholas, whose long career playing in hard-fought Ashes battles gives him a unique perspective on the game.
The important thing is that the policy that restricts commentary of events to those who have played in them, like Nicholas, is applied equally consistently across all of Nine’s sporting events.
Former Test openers Mark Nicholas and Mark Taylor (AAP Image/Chris Scott)
For example, anyone tuning in to the Women’s Ashes last night could hear the measured tones of legends Ian Healy, Michael Clarke and Mark Taylor, all hardened veterans of Women’s Ashes past, and some of the greatest women cricketers of all time. So it’s only natural that if commentary on women’s cricket is restricted to former great women cricketers like Healy, Clarke and Taylor, commentary on men’s cricket is restricted to luminaries of the men’s game.
And of course the policy applies to other sports too. Look at rugby league, where for decades fans have thrilled to the emotive commentary of Ray Warren, whose take on the greatest game of all is informed by his long and distinguished career in first-grade rugby league.
Indeed, Nine got lucky with Warren, as the fact that he was both a star league player and an elite Olympic swimmer means he can commentate with skill and insight on both sports for the network.
Former rugby league star Ray Warren. (AAP Image/Jason McCormack)
Of course, Warren can’t call every game: that’s why Nine has excellent backup options too, like Ray Hadley, whose wealth of rugby league knowledge was built over a near-peerless NRL playing record.
The really important thing about Nine’s policy is not just that it is adhered to with rigorous consistency, but it is at heart just an excellent policy, if you want the highest quality of sports broadcasting.
It’s only a pity other networks don’t have the same policy. If Seven, for example, had implemented a policy of ex-players only for its AFL coverage, we would have been spared all those dreadful years of listening to hacks like Dennis Cometti and Bruce MacAvaney, instead being able to enjoy the brilliant calls of true experts like Brian Taylor and Dwayne Russell.
Imagine how much more pleasant watching rugby union would’ve been down the years, if the commentary had been led by the erudite Chris Handy rather than known blunderer Gordon Bray.
And who doesn’t long to see Simon Hill forcibly removed from all soccer broadcasts, replaced by Craig Foster? It would finally redress the terrible injustice that saw Les Murray allowed to commentate for so many years despite never being so much as a substitute in the NSL.
So rather than pillorying Channel Nine for what might seem on the surface a stultifying insistence on living in the past, let’s applaud them, for their dedication to sport, their commitment to excellence, and most of all their total absence of blatant hypocrisy.