Loading ...Today, sport is everywhere. With satellite communications becoming the norm rather then the exception in the 1990s, the Oozies (2000s) have seen satellite television coverage, especially that of sport, mushroom in a fashion comparable to that of the daisies in the Namaqualand spring.
SuperSport is one of the world’s largest and most successful broadcasters of sports entertainment (save for the SuperSport Series, with a nod to Michael de Vries’ post earlier this week, which does get me a little gloomy). ESPN (US) and Sky Sports (UK) are bigger perhaps, but in relation to sheer quantity of media broadcast, SuperSport are up there with the best.
Though I am proud to say that a South African company is turning heads in the sports broadcasting world, sometimes my mind is awash with a feeling of grogginess when my thoughts turn to what I actually feel like watching.
I don’t have DStv but I always know what’s going on via the web, friend’s TV sets, radio and other forms of media. Now, with the Springboks touring Europe, the English Premier League, Absa Premiership plus the Uefa Champions League in full flow and cricket season having just gotten under way, I’m spoiled for choice to the point I can pick and choose what I want to watch.
Turn the clock back 15 years and the picture was a bit different. M-Net would carry the one Premier League game on the Saturday, one for Sunday, with rugby slotted in between or broadcast later in the evening. CSN was used for cricket and other sporting overflow. In those days, you didn’t miss the “game” because that was all you were going to see. Everyone you know would be watching it, making conversation at school (for me anyway) or the workplace a done deal for Monday. We all know that feeling of being the guy who didn’t watch the game. It isn’t lekker in the least.
Today, I feel overwhelmed by how much sport there is out there, to the point that I actually forgot Australia and New Zealand played each other in Tokyo this last weekend. For a sports-mad person such as me, whose profession is linked to knowing what is happening all the time, I found that disconcerting. Even cricket, my favourite pastime, is getting to the point of “well, I can watch some next week so I don’t care”.
The question is this: are we as media consumers being slowly stripped of the enjoyment of sports we love to watch (because they serve as a refreshing distraction from all of the bull-dust life throws our way) due to viewing obesity?
I don’t know about you, but that unpleasant and downright obnoxious feeling I can taste in my spit sure is making me dizzy, but mind you, I only taste the sweet vinegar of sports indigestion on the weekends. I’m safe for now, but for how long? I better make a trip down to the local pharmacy, because those indigestion tablets are definitely going to get abused in the future.
- None
A mate and I discussed this point while waiting for A champions league game to come on – an hour later now that the clocks have turned back in the UK aaargh the agony of waiting that extra hour…
With all the sport that has been on this year, particularly in SA, 220 cricket in SA, ICC Trophy in SA, Lions Tour in SA, Davis Cup in SA, Confed Cup in SA and all on top of the usual sporting action in a sporting mad country…
Are we full of sport in 2009? A bit like four pints of Guinness and a Pizza full, and throw in desert and your girlfriend’s leftovers too. But in truth, I would rather be fat from too much sport than undernourished, anyday.
Viva World Cup 2010…
We also debated the following:
Could it be that there is no room in the modern game of rugby for having fun with your mates….like all modern professional sports its become a business competing for television rights and fan interest with all other codes…
The problem with today’s modern athlete, 6.3 inches tall 17 stone is that they are so well conditioned that they become perfect…well drilled in every aspect…tackling stepping etc…there is no room for free thinking so effectively players become like chess pieces at the mercy of their coaches…
There is however, room still for the rugby genius, the free thinker, the freakishly quick, the abnormal step or a 60-metre boot (Frans Steyn).
Other than these exceptional players, who are far and few between at the moment…rugy has been thrown at the mercy of professionalism…and its not pretty to watch as it begins to breath heavily, like a heavyweight boxer who is red around the solar-plexus and is cut above both eyes, waiting for the sound of the bell in the ninth round.
Rugby’s very quest for perfection is what is starving it of real life; adventure, freedom, creativity and it cant last…
Needless to say neither can the players keep up with the task of filling the role of machine, as their bodies begin to wilt under the pressure of gym sessions, training methods and heavy fixture list.
What can be said of the athlete above in the modern game…perhaps can be said for various sports and their quest to gain a spot on tele and lucrative funds…
You only need to look at how cricket is changing internationally and locally to ensure that people stay interested.
Interestingly on a night when the usual mainstream SA sports were a bit thin, my mate an I lay on the couch, after gym ha ha, and started watching highlights of the Current World Series baseball…our tele is permanently on sports or nature…its just, well the done thing.
We couldn’t help but notice how similar cricket is becoming to baseball…lookout for the huge wall at cricket games in future to make catching in the outfield more spectacular.
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