Recently I have become more than usually annoyed at the British media. It has become the norm during the last couple of weeks in tabloid newspapers and other low-brow media (such as ITV) to report that this summer has so far been a summer of British sporting failure. Presumably, the "failures" in question are England losing in the quarter-final of Euro 2004, Tim Henman losing in the quarter-final of Wimbledon and, more recently, Jenson Button finishing 4th in Sunday's British Grand Prix. It is difficult for me to describe just how annoying I find this attitude. True failures would have been England failing to qualify for Euro 2004, Tim Henman losing in the 1st round of Wimbledon and Button finishing outside the points in the GP.
It is this sort of ill-informed opinion that makes it difficult for me to talk about sport with anyone but true sports fans. I had a conversation with someone recently who disliked Tim Henman and thought he was a failure because he has never won Wimbledon. Despite being consistently one of the ten best players in the world (ranked number five at the moment), winning numerous ATP tournaments, and competing at least in the last-eight of Wimbledon for most of the last decade, Henman is somehow still a failure. In a separate conversation I had with someone else about England's opening 2-1 loss to France at Euro 2004, the England performance was described as "typically English... they didn't really want to win"; apparently overlooked was the fact that they had played better and harder than anyone had anticipated and were winning after 90 minutes only to be defeated by a series of aberrations. These two opinions are perfect examples of the two most common of my annoyances. They are:
1. The two-weeks-of-the-year fan
2. The England-are-crap-at-everything skeptic
Tennis is a perfect way to illustrate the two-weeks-of-the-year fan. They are the sort of people who think that Wimbledon is the only major tennis tournament each year. These fans are probably vaguely aware of the Australian, French and US Opens but don't watch them and almost certainly are not aware that there are at least two top-level professional tournaments every week from January to November. They think that the player that wins Wimbledon is the best player in the world (which, of course, can often be true but isn't necessarily so). Golf has the same issue - perhaps to a lesser extent - with The Open Championship, which started today. And Formula One, with the British GP, sometimes also produces its own particular breed of this fan. My annoyance is that these people consider themselves knowledgeable about their respective sports and are happy to throw about their opinions and make sweeping statements like, "Tim Henman is no good at tennis." Before one makes such a statement, one should surely check to see whether it is actually a defendable position.
The media must also take considerable heat regarding this issue. After Henman lost his quarter-final match this year the papers were full of "Henman fails again" and "Wimpledon" headlines. As a nation we should actually be congratulating Henman. His record on the ATP tour and at Wimbledon over the last few years has been fantastic. Would Henman critics prefer to go back to the days of Jeremy Bates (who once made it to the 4th round of Wimbledon) and Chris Bailey (who once had a dramatic 5-set 2nd round defeat)? For they were all we had before Tiger Tim came along. One of the problems is that expectations are very high. Thanks largely to the media people expect Henman to win Wimbledon every year and so when he loses in the SF or QF, rather than just being disappointed, the nation thinks he has failed. The media is to blame here for sure. Of course, Henman believes he can win every tournament he enters, but one thing he doesn't do is expect to win. Whereas the media, and hence the public, do expect him to win. The heightened expectation stems from a lack of true knowledge about the sport. Another thing Henman regularly gets criticised for is an apparent lack of "fire". People use the Tiger Tim nickname in a sarcastic way implying that he has no fight in him. However, one thing people within the game know about Henman is that he is tough. The excellent commentator, analyst and ex-player Pat Cash - who is not really a fan of Henman - has in the past criticised people who doubt Henman's toughness, saying that one thing that Henman really does have going for him is his toughness and determination.
Ultimately, I suppose I cannot be too harsh with the two-weeks-of-the-year fan. They are fans and cheer the players on when the time is right. The media on the other hand are not forgivable. Their only motivation is to sell newspapers and will do so by getting people excited, boosting expectations and then, when things don't go perfectly, are the first ones to kick the fallen hero.
If you're still with me after all that, you'll be pleased to know that Part II will be coming soonish...
