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Rafael Nadal 0-3 Steve Darcis
Some concern about Nadal’s injured knee.
Rishi Persad to Darcis: “So Steve, did you target Rafa’s knee?”
Bemused Belgian “Er, no…”
Mike
Rafael Nadal 0-3 Steve Darcis
Some concern about Nadal’s injured knee.
Rishi Persad to Darcis: "So Steve, did you target Rafa’s knee?"
Bemused Belgian "Er, no…"
Mike
Did he actually ask that?
In the words of Quint, Jesus H. Christ……….
What do you actually object to in the question? That it’s unlikely to illicit a truthful reply?
Seems perfectly reasonable to expect any sportsman worth their salt to target any weak link in their opponent.
Mick McManus & Steve Logan used to do it regularly.
What do you actually object to in the question? That it’s unlikely to illicit a truthful reply?
Seems perfectly reasonable to expect any sportsman worth their salt to target any weak link in their opponent.
Mick McManus & Steve Logan used to do it regularly.
It’s a ridiculous question.
Firstly, there was no hint before or during the match that there was a knee problem anyway for Nadal.
The game nowadays is all about massively powerful baseline rallies which obviously test all areas of an athelete’s body – the notion of playing some sort of ‘special’ game that particularly ‘targets’ the knee is completely absurd.
Mike
I don’t find it an absurd question Mike. If one player has a bad knee then the other will make him/her turn as sharply as possible as often as possible.
Value Is EverythingSeems like a good question to me too. Darcis didn’t seem to object to it – answering to the effect that he was aware of Nadal’s knee problem, but didn’t want to overthink and move away from his natural game.
I don’t find it an absurd question Mike. If one player has a bad knee then the other will make him/her turn as sharply as possible as often as possible.
The aim in tennis is to hit winners or force your opponent into making errors. This would involve working your opponent from side to side, backwards and forwards, turning them, putting them on the back foot etc. I can’t see how the opponent having an injured knee/hip/ankle whatever it is changes this.
On reflection, I’m with Yeats, Ginger and TYF.
Its fairly obvious that if Nadals opponent did not know about the knee, he would have hit the ball straight to Nadals forehand down the centre of the court every time.
Just out of interest Mike, would you have posted this if Clare Balding say, had asked the question?
Don’t get me wrong, I chortled on reading your initial post and, partly ‘cos I have a pre-conceived notion of Rishi being a bit of a wally, could buy into your mockery. Then again, he’s a presenter expected to ask on-the-spot-questions and would probably have been lambasted had he not referred to Nadal’s knee. The guy couldn’t win (Rishi that is). To my mind, whether horse-racing or tennis, presenters are too intrusive and as they have to ask something, end up asking non-sensical questions. Persad is simpy a victim of the "we’re live, get him to say something" culture. When will producers get the message that viewers are not complete dic£-heads who need to be spoon-fed the obvious and let events unfurl without commentators having blurt out inanities?
I long for the day when a top sportsperson will say something like "haven’t you got eyes? Now **** off".Just out of interest Mike, would you have posted this if Clare Balding say, had asked the question?
I’d like to think so, but possibly not! Having said that, Balding has a ‘back-catalogue’ of pretty impressive performances in journalistic terms that is absent in Persad’s case so I would probably cut her more slack.
I think Persad is a victim of his affable personality, and as such I feel he’s channelled into these faintly ludicrous ‘how does it feel?’-type pap interviews. It tends to label him as something of a lightweight presenter but I don’t see too much evidence to the contrary at present.
As far as racing goes, I just don’t think he cuts it as a modern presenter simply because he lacks the grit to deal with any form of controversy: he just wants to be nice!
Mike
Out of interest, does anybody know how Rishi landed a job in racing in the first place? Walk into just about any bookmakers’ in south London and you will meet both punters and staff from ethnic minorities who have forgotten more about racing than dear old Rishi will ever know. I could find at least a dozen more suitable candidates than him just from the betting shops I regularly visit.
Is there any truth to the rumour that he only got the job because he is friends with Sir Michael Stoute?
Let’s not single poor Rishi out on this one. Every "straight from the court" interview is excruciatingly awful, particularly when the interviewers are slowing down their questions for the foreigners (who most of the time have English far better than McInroe).
I look forward to the day when this happens:
Interviewer:"How did you feel when you won?"
Player: "Terrible"
<Player then walks to locker room
>
Just out of interest Mike, would you have posted this if Clare Balding say, had asked the question?
I’d like to think so, but possibly not! Having said that, Balding has a ‘back-catalogue’ of pretty impressive performances in journalistic terms that is absent in Persad’s case so I would probably cut her more slack.
I think Persad is a victim of his affable personality, and as such I feel he’s channelled into these faintly ludicrous ‘how does it feel?’-type pap interviews. It tends to label him as something of a lightweight presenter but I don’t see too much evidence to the contrary at present.
As far as racing goes, I just don’t think he cuts it as a modern presenter simply because he lacks the grit to deal with any form of controversy: he just wants to be nice!
Mike
You are getting too soft Mike. Only Persad would have asked such a daft question, don’t let the minions side-track you.
"Out of interest, does anybody know how Rishi landed a job in racing in the first place? Walk into just about any bookmakers’ in south London and you will meet both punters and staff from ethnic minorities who have forgotten more about racing than dear old Rishi will ever know. I could find at least a dozen more suitable candidates than him just from the betting shops I regularly visit.
Is there any truth to the rumour that he only got the job because he is friends with Sir Michael Stoute?"
Might be a coincidence but the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago is a lady by the name of Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Rishi’s got a long way to go to match the question pitched at Mike Gatting after he got hit on the conk by a cricket ball. Standing there with black eyes and a lump like Vesuvius sticking out of his schnozzle the interviewer asked:-
"Where about on the nose did it hit you?"
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
I am no particular fan of Rishi but it is offensive and annoying that any thread concerning him never gets very far before it is suggested that his employment has to be the product of some kind of positive discrimination…….This is lazy racism IMO…..love him or hate him Rishi should stand comparison with any other racing presenter on his merit or lack of it.
As for the poster above who knows of any amount of ‘ethnic minorities’ in betting shops who ‘have forgotten more ……etc’ I would love to know what betting shops he goes into because the vast majority of people I overhear in betting shops regardless of their ethnicity are notable for their total ignorance about horse racing……they know plenty about throwing their money away but neither know or care about racing as a sport and but for betting wouldn’t go anywhere near it.
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