Two rather pathetic jokes

Bloemfontein: There were two rather pathetic jokes doing the rounds of this city of the roses as South Africa, with efficient ease, crushed an under-powered Zimbabwe in the first Test of the season.

Well before Team England lost their way at Randjesfontein in the opening game of the tour and South Africa wrapped up the first of the two Tests against Zimbabwe a radio commentator was asked, by the national broadcaster, SABC, to present a ball by ball commentary of one over every 20 minutes. The purpose of this useless exercise by those in charge at Faulty Towers at Auckland Park has yet to be explained.

Perhaps it was vain bid to appease the sponsors which SABC like to indulge themselves hoping the ghost exposing their fumbling efforts at credibility will eventually disappear. But this stop-start arrangement is the latest paragraph in a growing chapter of incompetence which has emerged from the national broadcasting executive suite in recent weeks.

The first joke is that within a couple of hours of the Test starting last Friday almost 5000 listeners jammed the switchboard wanting to know what had happened to the ?ball by ball? commentary. Such was the deluge of calls which jammed the switchboard that inquiries about the lack of the ball by ball commentary was switched to an answering service which later broke down.

The second joke was that on the Saturday and part of the Sunday, when SABC decided something had to be done, they had some guy doing it off TV as they declined to pay accommodation and travel expenses. On the Monday the latest in ball by ball description, the one over every 20 minutes was decided on as a way of being able to achieve two goals.

Such has been the muddled approach by SABC, the national broadcaster, this year they first pretend the domestic first-class season has not arrived, mainly because it is sponsored by someone else, they decide to try and ignore the Test match as well. Such is the brevity of coverage they have so far offered that if you do not have a television set, trying to find out what is going on through the medium of the radio is little short of a national disgrace by a company which is meant to uphold certain standards.

Then again, perhaps they are also piqued because the UCB offered the overseas broadcasting rights of the South Africa series against England to a UK company called Talk Radio who paid a fairly large sum for the rights, instead of the BBC. Now SABC are throwing another of their electronic tantrums as someone presses the wrong digital buttons.