Refusing to Step Out of the Limelight

What a shame that Australia’s triumph in the Cricket World Cup has been overshadowed by the performance of Shane Warne and his post match interviews, but honestly is it really a surprise to anyone.

As insightful as Shane Warne may be as a commentator when he actually focusses on the game he has struggled to come to terms with the fact that he is no longer a member of the Australian Cricket team. This has been evidenced in his continually throwing parties for the team and attending parties with them. There is nothing worse than a player who cannot accept that his time has come to an end and Warne appears to have struggled with that fact.

Channel Nine has to take some of the blame for the focus moving away from the team and onto one of their commentary team, as they should have briefed him to stick to talking about the game. It is all very well having ex players in the commentary box, but they must possess the skills to do the job. Many of the current ‘ex players club’ sadly do not. Most fans assume that the players will go and have a few drinks after the game, and therefore do not need an interviewer to ask such an obvious question, similarly we do not need to hear questions such as “you must be happy with the win?” Most want to be given an insight as to how the player felt during the game, how the game shifted, key points within the game that led to victory.

Back in February Geoff Lemon of the Guardian wrote a brilliant piece on the decline of Channel Nine’s cricket coverage entitled Just Not Cricket. This was written on the eve of the World Cup, but has been justified by the end result.

Either arrogance has seen Mr Lemon’s comments ignored, or quite simply those with contracts at Channel Nine at the present time could not give a damn what the viewer wants. Luckily there was excellent commentary on the radio, with Kevin Peterson being a revelation.

It comes down to be professionalism and sadly Shane Warne has shown a lack of that by being unable to distance himself from the team. His constantly referring to players by their nicknames is another example of his failure to move on. During the World Cup with an international audience, not just one in Australia many viewers would not have had a clue which player was being discussed when only a nickname was used.

It is a shame that such a solid performance by Australia to win their fifth World Cup has been overshadowed by a man desperate to stay in the limelight.

The Word Cup still in this writer’s opinion dragged on way too long. However the best teams ended up contesting the semi finals. The South Africans showed their class in terms of the way they handled the defeat and showed that there are still gentlemen who play cricket. New Zealand found the big occasion just too much but also played the tournament in a spirit that won them many friends. India’s defence of its title was valiant, but as was evident in many games struggled chasing a total, a total that was larger than it should have been due to their not having a truly world class bowler. Australia were almost Germanic in their consistency. There were signs that this team has a new breed of cricketers who are prepared to take responsibility when those around them fail, and that is ominous for other teams around the world, especially England and the upcoming Ashes series.