BBC make switch over Scotland TV coverage (18 May 1999)

18 May 1999

BBC make switch over Scotland TV coverage

Andrew Lomax

Bbc television in Scotland last night bowed to public pressure and announced that they would be making their coverage of the World Cup match against Pakistan on Thursday "close to ball-by-ball".

The channel sparked a storm of protests when they suspended coverage of Scotland's match with Australia at Worcester on Sunday after the first hour to switch to the West Indies' game against Pakistan at Bristol.

They only rejoined the game for the closing 10 overs, prompting a series of complaints from Scotland supporters, including the parents of captain George Salmond, who had been unable to travel from Arbroath for health reasons.

Salmond's mother Christine said: "I will never forgive the people at the BBC. They didn't show a single minute of George's innings. They have badly let me and thousands of other Scots fans down. Words just can't express how angry I am."

BBC Scotland at first insisted yesterday that the country's cricketing status meant that broadcast time given to the side would have to be balanced by coverage of the Test-playing teams. A BBC spokesman, Roy Templeton, said: "The World Cup organisers wanted priority to be given to the Test-playing sides if there was a clash.

"The same rule does apply to Sky Sports as I understand it, but they have three specialist sports channels. We would apologise to those who felt they didn't get the coverage they were expecting yesterday, but we had set out what we going to do in advance.

"When a clash like this happens you are never going to please everyone and when we moved away from the Pakistan and West Indies match we had complaints from Scotland's large Pakistini community."

However, the decision announced last night represents a major change of policy which Scotland's supporters hope will be repeated when Scotland play Bangladesh on May 31 on the same day as the West Indies face New Zealand.

Thursday's change only applies north of the border with English-based armchair cricket watchers being offered split coverage between the game at Durham and Australia's tie against New Zealand at Cardiff.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)