padmanabha
17th June 2007, 07:10 AM
THOUGH I DON'T LIKE TO FORWARD WHAT I RECEIVE, AT TIMES I FEEL LIKE SHARING IT WITH PEOPLE. HERE IS A LOVE LETTER TO SUE BARKER FROM A FRIEND OF MINE
To Ms.Sue Barker and others of her ilk,
I am from India myself where the tennis situation
is pathetic at best, apart from a few doubles victories by Leander Paes and
Mahesh Bhupathi. In the cricket and Bollywood obssessed
society from where I come, the media went beserk when Sania Mirza appeared
on the scene. When
she met Serena Williams for the first time the newspapers ran articles which
went "Sania gets Serena
with her back to the wall" "Serena faces Sania Mirza today and is peeing in
her pants" and so on.
The score however was 6-1, 6-0 or something like that......in Serena's
favour obviously....but that
didn't seem to matter.....obviously.
I have been following the Wimbledon Championships
from the time Borg used to
win. And along with millions of others all over the world, Wimbledon has
remained my favourite sporting event ever. Watching the Wimbledon coverage
on BBC used to be an additional pleasure
mainly because of John Mac Enroe's charming style of commentating. But
during the past decade
or so, the whole British angle, apparently spearheaded by Sue Barker with
her "Henman Hill" and "Henmania", has rendered the whole thing rather sick,
disgusting, pathetic and desparate.
So much so that one wishes that all the Brits, towards whom one had
absolutely no ill feeling at all
to start with, would be knocked out in the first round itself.....and serve
an ace or two onto Sue's face as a cherry on top as they leave the court.
As an Indian I would be thrilled if we had an
Indian champion. But I wouldn't support a player with as much attitude and
as many unforced errors as Sania Mirza Just because she happens to be from
my country. And I love Federer and Nadal not because they are Indian but
because of the champions they are. While individuals maybe entitiled to
their prejudices, an organization as respected and classic as the BBC should
be ashamed of the damage it is doing to the game itself in general and the
British players in particular with this sort of unbelievable bias. And God
knows how much money one pays people like Mac Enroe to mumble the right
things these days as year after year Sue does a post mortem of poor, poor
Tim Henman's guaranteed 3rd round exit, in
her predictable funerial tones reserved for the "demise" on another pathetic
Brit. Sad really.
But this year's Wimbledon Preview takes the cake
! ! ! A collage of all those true
champions, ending with Andy Murray ! (The urge to type "Andy F***ing Murray"
is irresistable ......
and justified, if I may say so myself.....under the circumstances, though I
have nothing against the poor boy himself.) With this sort of sickening
stance taken by the media, one wishes that the British players would have
the.....er...."Balls"....so to speak.....to Boycott Wimbledon altogether
since they don't seem to have the balls to Win it anyway.
The first
step towards rectifying the situation would
perhaps be to transfer Ms.Sue Barker and her Brit obssessed friends to the
cast of the BBC Serial,
Little Britain where they can vomit happily over each other rather than
induce nausea among the
tennis loving public. Though I am in Europe now and following the Stella
Artois Championships on
BBC, I look forward to being back in India in time for the Wimbledon, mainly
to escape the BBC
coverage of the event. Yes, Sania Mania certainly would be there but since
she would probably
exit in the first couple of rounds, one would be able to watch the rest of
the championship in
peace.
If there is ONE normal, decent, sane, sports
loving person in your team, I appeal to you Sir....Madam....PLEASE remove
the disgusting Wimbledon Preview you've started airing now. Let Murray WIN
it once. Then you can keep shoving him into our faces for years and years to
come. But right now it makes a mockery of the real champions as well as of
the true spirit of the game itself. I rest my case. May the best win. Amen.
To Ms.Sue Barker and others of her ilk,
I am from India myself where the tennis situation
is pathetic at best, apart from a few doubles victories by Leander Paes and
Mahesh Bhupathi. In the cricket and Bollywood obssessed
society from where I come, the media went beserk when Sania Mirza appeared
on the scene. When
she met Serena Williams for the first time the newspapers ran articles which
went "Sania gets Serena
with her back to the wall" "Serena faces Sania Mirza today and is peeing in
her pants" and so on.
The score however was 6-1, 6-0 or something like that......in Serena's
favour obviously....but that
didn't seem to matter.....obviously.
I have been following the Wimbledon Championships
from the time Borg used to
win. And along with millions of others all over the world, Wimbledon has
remained my favourite sporting event ever. Watching the Wimbledon coverage
on BBC used to be an additional pleasure
mainly because of John Mac Enroe's charming style of commentating. But
during the past decade
or so, the whole British angle, apparently spearheaded by Sue Barker with
her "Henman Hill" and "Henmania", has rendered the whole thing rather sick,
disgusting, pathetic and desparate.
So much so that one wishes that all the Brits, towards whom one had
absolutely no ill feeling at all
to start with, would be knocked out in the first round itself.....and serve
an ace or two onto Sue's face as a cherry on top as they leave the court.
As an Indian I would be thrilled if we had an
Indian champion. But I wouldn't support a player with as much attitude and
as many unforced errors as Sania Mirza Just because she happens to be from
my country. And I love Federer and Nadal not because they are Indian but
because of the champions they are. While individuals maybe entitiled to
their prejudices, an organization as respected and classic as the BBC should
be ashamed of the damage it is doing to the game itself in general and the
British players in particular with this sort of unbelievable bias. And God
knows how much money one pays people like Mac Enroe to mumble the right
things these days as year after year Sue does a post mortem of poor, poor
Tim Henman's guaranteed 3rd round exit, in
her predictable funerial tones reserved for the "demise" on another pathetic
Brit. Sad really.
But this year's Wimbledon Preview takes the cake
! ! ! A collage of all those true
champions, ending with Andy Murray ! (The urge to type "Andy F***ing Murray"
is irresistable ......
and justified, if I may say so myself.....under the circumstances, though I
have nothing against the poor boy himself.) With this sort of sickening
stance taken by the media, one wishes that the British players would have
the.....er...."Balls"....so to speak.....to Boycott Wimbledon altogether
since they don't seem to have the balls to Win it anyway.
The first
step towards rectifying the situation would
perhaps be to transfer Ms.Sue Barker and her Brit obssessed friends to the
cast of the BBC Serial,
Little Britain where they can vomit happily over each other rather than
induce nausea among the
tennis loving public. Though I am in Europe now and following the Stella
Artois Championships on
BBC, I look forward to being back in India in time for the Wimbledon, mainly
to escape the BBC
coverage of the event. Yes, Sania Mania certainly would be there but since
she would probably
exit in the first couple of rounds, one would be able to watch the rest of
the championship in
peace.
If there is ONE normal, decent, sane, sports
loving person in your team, I appeal to you Sir....Madam....PLEASE remove
the disgusting Wimbledon Preview you've started airing now. Let Murray WIN
it once. Then you can keep shoving him into our faces for years and years to
come. But right now it makes a mockery of the real champions as well as of
the true spirit of the game itself. I rest my case. May the best win. Amen.