1 - 7 February 2001
Issue No.519
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 1 - 7 February 2001 Issue No.519 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Half-time
On-air mess
The price to pay for being a penny-pincher can be the difference between winning and losing. Not just in the usual sense of not spending enough on modern facilities, good coaching and new talent. Sometimes the penalty for holding on too strongly to your purse strings can lead to the belief that you lost, when indeed you won -- yet you tied.
Confused? Not to worry. You're not alone. Millions of Egyptians who watched the recent Egyptian-Czech handball game could not quite figure out what had happened either. That would include the Egyptian television broadcaster, the one person who should know.
The game, part of the world championships currently being played in France, had see-sawed until its final seconds. When the whistle blew, Egypt had seemingly been defeated, then had apparently won, both results confirmed by the sportscaster. Morning newspapers, however, had the game drawn 26-26.
The chaos was due in part to the time clock that kept on ticking even though the referee had raised his hand, signalling a time-out. The confusion was compounded by French TV, which was late in flashing the score on screens. Meanwhile, our beleaguered sportscaster, sitting an ocean away in a studio in Cairo, remained as bewildered as his viewers.
This simple tale of who did what, when was this and how could that be is a crystal clear example of how things can go awry without a man on the scene. If the authorities concerned had bothered to send even one broadcaster to France -- somebody sitting on court side smack in the thick of things -- the Egyptian-Czech mix-up would never have been.
It is indeed strange that no Egyptian TV or radio crew was sent to cover the championship or the Egyptian team, a squad in which the country takes great pride. After soccer, handball has become the second most popular sport in the country, thanks to the national team that in just a few years has managed to jump to seventh place in the world, at one time even sixth.
There is promise of doing even better in France. Egypt has thus far beaten Morocco, Portugal and Iceland, and drew with the Czech Republic. A loss to Sweden, the world champions, while disappointing, still left the Egyptians as runners-up. It did not prevent them from making it to the second round and an encounter with North African rivals Algeria.
There are the most trivial of football matches shown on Egyptian TV. They are almost always second division affairs whose results only a handful of people would be interested in. The stadiums in which these matches are played are deserted and the games themselves are shown on none of the major channels. Yet, on almost any given day, they are shown, commentator et al. One would imagine a world handball championship would necessitate spot coverage.
Is it too much to ask of who's in charge to provide a live commentary from the scene of future important championships, or will we continue to get our scores and results every and any which way?
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