Love it or hate it Sky TV produce some of the most proficient sports coverage around and their introduction of super slo-mo and hawkeye technonology have only added to the viewers pleasure but their commentators are naff beyond belief.
This weekends Ryder Cup coverage is a case in point. Bruce Critchley is the most miserable bastard I have ever heard commentate on any sports event, he criticises when it's not warranted and barely breaks into sweat when the excitement level rises and as for Nick Faldo, well thanks must go to the European Tour for making him the captain for 2008 because listening to him is like listening to the biggest bar-room bore on the planet.
I know Faldo holds all the Ryder Cup records worth having: most matches, most points, most wins, most female caddies etc but does he have to wear it so heavily? He gives poor old Howard Clark (the original dour Yorkshireman) such a hard time I actually felt sorry for the miserable old git. The alternative is to wait until the evening and the BBC highlights but the Ryder Cup is all about watching it as it happens, the drama unfolding in real-time.
Why don't these people learn from the masters: Richie Benaud and Peter O'Sullivan, (even Barry Davies to some extent) who know/knew that the space between words, like the spaces in music, is what brings the spectator at home into the event, just rambling on and on speaking nonsense like a tourettes victim adds nothing.
It's the same with SKY's football coverage, Andy 'Oh come off it ref' Gray and Richard 'football didn't exist before 1992' Keys have been ruining football coverage for the last fourteen years in my opinion. Watching the Man.Utd v Arsenal game last Sunday was a case in point, the main commentator (Martin Tyler I think) clearly wanted to let the first ten or fifteen seconds of the match pass without comment but no, Andy Gray had to chip in with a comment about the pitch being greasy and the wind playing a part later on in the game . Is that the art of a summariser?
Andy Gray now sound like a parody of himself and I would suggest that he's been out of the game for so long his opinions as an ex-pro are no longer as valid as they were, he's now the same as you or I a fan, trouble is he can't bear to upset any of his professional footballing buddies, unlike Mick McCarthy during the summer who was honest during BBC's World Cup coverage and as Chris Waddle is when appearing on the radio.
Where SKY do suceed is with their cricket coverage, whilst there's a heap of razzamatazz and hype surrounding it you can't argue with the opinions of five, yes five, ex-England cricket captains (Gower,Hussein, Botham, Atherton, Willis), plus the legends that are David Lloyd and Michael Holding and the unimpeachable Richie Benaud. They have also been clever in bringing in Nick Knight and Robert Croft, whilst they are both still playing, to add some current players perspective.
What SKY should add on their interactive service is the 'crowd noise' facility you get with BBC's football coverage - then we could enjoy the Ryder Cup experience listening to birdsong, babbling brooks and a few thousand Guinness enhanced Irishmen enjoying themselves.
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