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Boost for Malaysian sports

I DON'T know about you but I am eagerly awaiting the start of Astro Arena's maiden broadcast today.
It is long overdue for Malaysia to have a television channel dedicated exclusively to local sports, one where our own athletes can at last become recognisable to other Malaysians.

Television, naturally, is a powerful medium to expand the popularity of sports as can be seen by the explosion of interest in the English Premier League in Malaysia over the last 15 years.

While it might be too much to hope that local sports might get the same kind of exposure, at least it is a step in the right direction.

For local journalists, Channel 801 will be a big boon to us when we are unable to travel to every corner of the country to cover sport events.

Very often, we are left frustrated with the coverage of local sports, especially football, on television as very little information can be gleaned from the short sports news broadcasts.
Even the live telecasts at times leave much to be desired and it is not acceptable to announce Nicol David as "the world's number one tennis player seeking to win here at the Malaysian Open", as one commentator did at the Kuala Lumpur Open squash tournament recently.

If journalists are finding information hard to come by, imagine what it must be like for followers of local football teams.

A major point in the declining popularity of Malaysian football is the lack of access to information of a fan's favourite team and players.

The print media only has a limited amount of space to cater to their needs, hence Astro Arena's airing of mid-week M-League matches is a welcome relief to fans.

It is a very rare occasion where sport venues are filled to capacity in the country, no matter what the event, usually due to a lack of enthusiasm or knowledge of a certain sport.

With a channel dedicated to local sports, this could change by educating Malaysians about sports.

Then we won't have camera flashes going off every few seconds when Nicol is in the midst of a rally, trying her hardest to keep concentration due to the ignorance of a few.

It has often been said Malaysia struggle to produce champions in sports because we lack a sporting culture.

This is true to a certain extent when most Malaysians can readily identify foreign sports stars and prefer to associate themselves with these personalities.


But outside household names like Nicol, Lee Chong Wei and certain footballers, most Malaysians would struggle to recognise national athletes if they were to bump into them on the street.
It is not that our athletes are publicity-hungry, but a little recognition can go along way.

So it is with much hope that Astro Arena can be successful and prove that there is more to local sports than meets the eye.

2010/03/26
By Devinder Singh

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