Sky domination on the cards as BBC look to drop Masters from schedules

WE shall be instructed to sit in silence and awe as the Tiger Woods Reborn bandwagon begins to roll at Augusta this week although quite why the return of the shamed one is the big story in view of further evidence that our national broadcaster is on the verge of ending links with the Masters is open to question.

Snippets about the Tiger saga continue to drip into the public domain: the sainted Elin will not, we are told, be in Georgia; the insistence by Woods that he alone knew of his serial infidelities have been openly challenged with a finger pointing straight to his agent; and Tiger has missed his greatest opportunity to make a new start by continuing to employ the foul-mouthed bully Steve Williams as his caddie.

But forget Tiger and his troubles. Of much more concern to the British sport-watching public, especially the golfing fraternity, is the fact that this might be the last Masters to be shown on the BBC, despite expectations that viewing figures this year will reach heights unheard of since Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Co were winning Green Jackets.

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The BBC are rapidly losing interest in the game. This year they will show only 16 days of live golf, compared to 30 just five years ago.

If the corporation does not challenge the ever-growing might of Sky, that figure will fall to 12 next year yet the four days of the Masters has become a ritual for so many.

Going back to the days of Henry Longhurst, watching Player, Palmer, Hogan, Sarazen, Nicklaus and Jacklin, the start of the Masters has been the start of the golf season in this country.

Thousands of golfers have had their interest sparked by the annual pageant; some of them have gone on to great things. The Masters is part of life, just as the BBC used to be.

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Their continued paring of sports coverage – with the exceptions of Formula One, the World Cup and the London Olympics, when they will gorge themselves – provides further evidence that their right to a licence fee ought to be questioned, the sooner the better.

AS we still await the decision from the Department of Culture, Sport and Media as to the future of Ashes cricket on our screens – or, more accurately, the fate of just one series over the next decade or so – the arguments rattle on with the England and Wales Cricket Board insisting that the loss of their freedom to deal with the highest bidder would seriously damage the fabric of the game in this country.

They point to the millions of Sky money used in the furthering of the grass-roots game, in the promotion of women's cricket, to such a degree that England's girls are the best in the world, and the thousands of new coaches who have been awarded their badges and are spreading the gospel of the great game.

All that is worthwhile and, on the surface at least, the figures are impressive. There are, though, those who would argue that the hoops through which clubs, particularly small organisations sometimes on the perimeter of the game, have to jump place too much strain on the time of amateur officials, that without professional expertise they have little chance of access to the loot.

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Rather higher up the ladder we also have to question whether the ECB are using Murdoch's millions in the best way.

Take, for example, the role of England's bowling coach, or rather the lack of one.

Troy Cooley, the Australian who was such a central figure in the 2005 Ashes success, has gone home, so has his successor Otis Gibson, the West Indian who appeared to be growing into the role just as the lure of a job in Caribbean became too much to resist.

Now England have cast their net for a replacement and come up with a shortlist for discussion over the next few days.

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Allan Donald, the great South African paceman, is one of the contenders, so is David Saker, the mentor of the Victorian side in the Sheffield Shield, while the latest candidate to emerge from outside our borders is Craig McDermott, who so nearly became a Yorkshire player a long time ago.

On the home front are Dougie Brown, Warwickshire's assistant coach, and Stuart Barnes, the bowling coach at Gloucestershire.

Given that an international sportsman's first questions when meeting a new coach is invariably "what have you won?" it seems the home-grown pair are at something of a disadvantage against the likes of Donald, a giant of the game, and McDermott, whose 71 Tests yielded 291 wickets.

Brown played 23 one-day internationals for England and Scotland; Barnes has worked with the England performance squad.

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Where, we must ask, are the English coaches the ECB are so proud of?

With all due respect to Messrs Brown and Barnes, they hardly appear candidates to take bowlers like Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan to new heights, which will be the minimum requirement in Australia next winter and beyond.

Another traditional cavalcade comes our way with Saturday's Grand National.

The annual contribution to the satchels is under consideration but at the moment those to avoid – on the basis that the last National winner picked hereabouts was Nicolaus Silver in 1961 – are Character Building, Chief Dan George (given a run) and Rosa Royal. Carey Street beckons once again...

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