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