Sports commentary on TV

Sports commentary on TV

Mr. Piero Ronci's letter (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 31, 1995)
says, "Indonesian soccer matches usually have very good
commentary ..." I do not think so. Sports commentary here, not
only on soccer, is generally too wordy, lacks substance, is often
irrelevant and contains too many wishes for a certain side to
win; aspects which do not go well with television, or any other
medium of communication.

Six years ago, with the advent of private television, there
was hope for improvement, but until today RCTI, SCTV, ANteve and
Indosiar have not shown that they can do better than TVRI. Let me
give an example. In ball games (soccer, tennis, volleyball)
viewers can see for themselves whenever the ball is hit out of
court, but reporters will tell you every time that the ball is
"out". They should save their breath for better things! Also,
when we see that a tennis ball does not come across, we are
invariably told that, "The ball is caught in the net." Things are
not better with the reports on badminton, Indonesia's prime
sport.

The pre-match commentaries solicited from an expert by the
presenter are more often than not dull. Viewers can do without
them, especially if they become so wordy as to leave viewers
without a soccer line-up or the first points of a tennis match.
So, Mr. Ronci's estimate that 90 percent of the viewers enjoy
commentaries in Indonesian, is far from the truth. The quality of
the commentaries in all sports here leaves much to be desired.

There used to be good commentaries from abroad, what else but
in English. With more and more sports on television, it seems
inevitable that native speakers of English have also invaded the
field of sports commentary. Unavoidably, the quality of these
native speakers is often questionable. So, we now also get poor
commentary from abroad.

Indonesian television shows soccer from every corner of the
world: Asia, Arabia, Latin America and many European countries.
All matches are commented in English, by native speakers of
English. As a layman I would say that their educational
background is extremely variable, and consequently so is their
speech. That aspect is interesting enough. What worries me is the
variety in quality of their reporting. This should push local
television stations to be more independent and improve their
sports commentary as a service to the 90 percent earmarked by Mr.
Piero Ronci.

S. HARMONO

Jakarta