The Gary Lineker saga revealed much about British politics and society. But it also showed the importance of an unappreciated sporting star: the commentator
saga revealed much about British politics and society. But it also showed the importance of an unappreciated sporting star: the commentator. After thesuspended Mr Lineker from “Match of the Day”, the flagship football-highlights show he hosts, for his criticism of the Conservative government’s immigration policy, several of his colleagues in the studio and the commentary box said that they would boycott their weekend duties in solidarity.
Until the advent of television, radio commentators provided the only way fans unable to buy a ticket could experience the action live. In 1921 the first-ever piece of radio commentary offered listeners in Pittsburgh coverage of a lightweight boxing match between Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee. Commentators became celebrities in their own right.
Though sporting action can be followed using many different media, commentators have retained their importance. Their primary job is still to describe the action, but their secondary functions matter, too: heightening fans’ emotions during exciting passages of play, spicing up the mundane, and commiserating during the worst.
To the commentator falls the responsibility of providing the soundtrack to some fans’ most cherished memories. It is a kind of immortality. Followers of Manchester United, for instance, go fuzzy when recalling the words of Clive Tyldesley before the greatest moment in the football club’s history. Trailing during the final minutes of their Champions League final in 1999, Mr Tyldesley asked with a rhetorical flourish: “Can Manchester United score? They always score.
Some commentators become so good at elevating the humdrum and enshrining the memorable that they come to embody their sport. John Motson, who died last month, was one such example for British football fans. Richie Benaud was considered the voice of cricket in Australia; Harsha Bhogle currently has that honour in India. In Formula 1, where commentary has to be almost continuously breathless, Murray Walker set the standard; David Croft has taken his mantle.
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