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| Gulu Ezekiel Blog: Oh no Deano! |
| by |
| Aug 10, 2006 |
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Dean Jones is surely not the only international sports
personality to reveal his racist streak. In the
case of the former Australian batsmen though, he was
foolish and careless enough to get caught red-handed.
Jones, an experienced broadcaster, committed the
cardinal sin of making an offensive comment on air
while under the impression that the live feed was not
going out at the time. To use that as an alibi and
whine about getting caught only makes Jones appear
more culpable.
Practically the first rule of TV broadcasting is under
no circumstances to make a foul remark or utter an
obscenity when in the studio or while commentating on
a match. There is after all always the danger of a
mike somewhere around that is switched on at the time.
A few years ago former India opener Navjot Singh Sidhu
was sacked by ESPN-STAR Sports for uttering the
dreaded "F@#k" word live on air.
Co-anchor Alan Wilkins, the former Glamorgan pace bowler tauntingly asked Sidhu if he could pronounce "Worcestershire." Sidhu thought they had gone into an ad break when he
responded by saying: "Don't f#$king provoke me, Wilko."
It was suspected at the time that Sidhu had been
deliberately set up as the channel was keen to
dispense with his services. He has since become a
freelance loudmouth across numerous channels in India.
Perhaps not all that surprisingly, two extremely vocal
cricketers of the 70s, Tony Greig and Ian Chappell
were also caught making offensive comments on air in
Australia.
In April 2004, former Manchester United soccer manager
Ron Atkinson resigned from his analyst's job with the
ITV channel in the UK after a racist comment he made
about Chelsea's black French international defender
Marcel Desailly was inadvertently broadcast.
The same feed for cricket telecasts goes out to TV
stations worldwide. However, not all have the same ad
breaks. And this proved to be Jones' undoing.
While TEN Sports produced the pictures for the Sri
Lanka/South Africa series, SuperSport which picked up
the feed in South Africa was live on air as TEN Sports
went for a break at the fall of a wicket, in this case
Amla catching Kumar Sangakarra off Shaun Pollock.
This is when Jones turned to his fellow-commentators
and made what he refers to as a joke about Amla. It
has also been revealed that those fellow-commentators
immediately objected to Jones' slur.
Back in 1987, a few years before the advent of cable
TV in India, the national Doordarshan channel was
telecasting the live coverage of the India v Australia
Davis Cup semifinal match from White City stadium in
Sydney. Two of the commentators were heard around India making
obscene references to a woman's ample anatomy. It was
during an ad break in Australia but it was still
"live" in India.
Nearly 20 years later another Aussie sporting legend
has blundered on air.
Comments? Send to venu@dreamcricket.com
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