Weekend media coverage of sport
Michael Henderson, in The Times yesterday, thundered against the new look TMS.
He observed that it tries too hard to be funny.
He rued the absence of Christopher Martin Jenkins, I agree with Henderson the ultimate flag bearer of traditional cricket, to a certain extent.
Brian Johnston laid down the original ground rules of, above all, TMS being fun.
However, with the diverse BBC it was only time before TMS – white, male, public school, elderly – fell into its sights for a new look.
Isha Guhra and Ebony Rainsford Smith have now been recruited.
Jonathan Agnew (aka “Aggers”) does not seem at ease and is increasingly grouchy.
Aggers like banter but a word out of place to Isha or Ebony and he’s out.
Yesterday there was no play at all. The old TMS crew could sustain a conversation all day but yesterday the nearest to this – and it was long way short – was a discussion on how Test cricket should deal with bad light.
The reality is that the authorities should accept that the cricket season weather is unreliable and plan for this.
For wholly different reasons I was more than irritated by Ian Dennis’ commentary on BT Sport of Manchester City 1 Lyon 3.
He repeatedly accused the Lyon players of diving.
One of the great misconceptions is that overseas players introduced diving to English football.
Rodney Marsh, Francois Lee (aka “LeeWon Pen”) and Kevin Keegan were accused of going down too easily in the box long before the influx of foreign players.
Olympique Lyon are an interesting side.
In the Times sport section yesterday there was an informative article on how Lyon President Aules is suing the French Football Association for closing the Ligue Une because of Covid with his team seventh and ineligible for the Champions League.
It’s a team that produces enormous talent which they sell on, most recently Lacauzette to Arsenal.
Young striker Moussa Dembele, according to Alan Tanner, was given his break at Fulham by Felix Magath.
Dembele sensibly did not move to Chelsea or Manchester City, but to Celtic and then Lyon.
I can’t see him or Cornet being there much longer.
Above all, Dennis could only grudgingly admit that Lyon deserved to win.
As Rex wrote so perceptively yesterday, English club football is not quite as good as they – including Dennis – think.
