Good article about the shameful fact that none of our local TV stations in T&T made the effort to cover the crucial World Cup qualifier game live between T&T and Mexico last night.
What of national pride?
By Fazeer Mohammed
Story Created: Oct 26, 2014 at 11:19 PM ECT (T&T Express)
Thanks Andre, Tony and I95.5FM. As a dinosaur with a laptop almost as archaic, I had to rely on I95’s commentary of Trinidad and Tobago’s duel with Mexico yesterday afternoon in Philadelphia for a spot at next year’s Women’s World Cup football finals.
Say what you like about Andre Baptiste’s broadcast style, it does keep you interested. Even the merest hint of an attacking play results in high-pitched screaming and an even more frenetic pace than his already frantic manner. But then, what do you expect from a horseracing fanatic? Frankly, the only thing missing from my former St Mary’s College liming pardner’s repertoire is something like “...and down the stretch they come!”
At his side sharing commentary duties was Tony Lee. This senior broadcaster’s measured contributions were the perfect foil to Andre’s super-fast ranting and raving, a welcome change from the station’s usual football commentary experts, Edgar Vidale and Ken Butcher.
It’s not that Edgar, the former national coach, and former national player Ken don’t know what they’re talking about or can’t articulate, but they continuously violate one of the fundamental rules of broadcasting by rambling over each other’s voices to the extent that it often comes across as an irritating, unintelligible jumble.
Beggars can’t be choosers though, and if it had to be that way, I was prepared to listen to a commentary team of Rachel Price, Reema Carmona and their legal representatives just to be able to follow the “live” action of that critical third-place playoff in the final phase of CONCACAF qualifying.
Yesterday’s “live” broadcast from the United States is in keeping with I95’s coverage of major sporting events in which there is a significant national interest, including Olympic Games, World Athletic Championships and Commonwealth Games. By the way, this is not about self-serving bigging-up just because the station now falls under the umbrella of One Caribbean Media, the organisation that is also the parent company of this newspaper.
Long before the acquisition, Andre, Tony and company were jetting off to Beijing, Delhi and other far-flung cities to relay the action as it happened involving Trinidad and Tobago competitors, so OCM can’t really take any credit for this latest initiative. In fact, the parent company should be taking a careful look at the lukewarm response to its own three-part series “Birth of a Track Nation.”
In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, I don’t blame you. These half-hour programmes on the country’s three medal-winning performances at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics – 50 years ago – are suffering from a lack of promotion and time slots that are hardly ideal.
If you missed the weekend airings of the first two parts (Edwin Roberts’ bronze in the 200 metres and Wendell Mottley’s silver in the 400) or can’t catch next Sunday’s story of the 4 x 400 relay bronze effort, repeats are shown on the following Tuesday. What time on Tuesday, you ask? Well, it’s 4.30 p.m. No, not a.m. but p.m., the time you’re still at work, just finishing work or stuck in traffic somewhere between work and home.
Look, I fully appreciate all the financial considerations and value of primetime, especially for a private concern that is not the beneficiary of state largesse. Surely though, such programming that is so relevant to us deserves better treatment.
As I’m typing this Kennya Cordner has just scored a second half equaliser and Andre is at his delirious best, even moreso as goalkeeper Kimika Forbes pulls off an excellent save shortly after to keep the scores level. Mexico pour forward again, a shot comes off the crossbar and Tony says something about, for all of you who can’t see this, this is really entertaining football.
But why can’t we see it? Why? Why do we have to go searching across the worldwide web for some obscure, hard-to-locate website that is pirating the Fox Sports 2 coverage of the tournament? There is so little regard for sport and its value and prominence in our society that a national team in with a very good chance of going to the Women’s World Cup finals for the first time can’t attract either the will or the way to bring “live” television coverage.
But wait, Andre bawling down the place again as Mariah Shade makes it 2-1 T&T in the 78th minute, only for Mexico to level 40 seconds later. This is not about a $50,000 per player incentive but about determination, desperation and national pride...whatever the final score.
A great pity then that we couldn’t see it, although Andre and Tony were doing a damn good job of capturing the excitement. “We holding on!” says Tony, as the whistle blows, signalling extra-time. No time, or no desire, to put it on our screens though.