Ordinary Gweilo

Well, Wimbledon is over for another year.  Star Sports seem to do a fairly competent job of covering the championships, with live coverage every evening, a highlights show in the morning, and extended highlights in the afternoon.

However, I can’t help feeling that they could do better.  In a multi-channel world it seems a little odd that we don’t get a choice of games (as the BBC provides in the UK through digital TV), especially when Star Sports choose Tamarina Tanasugarn in preference to Roger Federer.  It seems to be possible to show multiple Champions League matches live, so why not Wimbledon?

I’m also puzzling over why Star Sports sometimes take the BBC commentary, and other times have their own team.  I’d far rather hear what John McEnroe and Virginia Wade think about the game, and it’s also slightly frustrating when the camera picks out someone in the crowd and the Star commentators ignore it completely (as happened frequently in Federer vs. Nadal).

If you really wanted the BBC commentary for the mens and womens finals you had to watch TVB Pearl – which made Star’s claim (in a newspaper advert) to have exclusive coverage look very silly.

Meanwhile, with Star Sports and TVB Pearl both showing Wimbledon, where was the British Grand Prix?  Nowhere to be seen.