David Mitchell on TMS

If you get the chance, listen again to David Mitchell joining Aggers for A view from the Boundary at lunch on Test Match Special yesterday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lr08x/Test_Match_Special_18_07_2009/
The interview begins around 2:21 into the show.

Mitchell – of Peep Show fame – was interesting when asked about his personal life and profession, but brilliantly intelligent and insightful when talking cricket, as only the kind of ‘Part-time sports fan’ I was describing the other week can be. He didn’t fill me with too much confidence early on, admitting ‘I was frightened of the ball’ as a cricketer himself.

But I found myself wanting to yell at the radio ‘yes, exactly!’ on numerous occasions, as he, almost nonchalantly, explored the quiet truths of watching the sport. He laughed at how ludicrous it was that his flatmate begged him to turn off the TV because him watching it affected England’s performance in 2005. It’s absurd to even think that might be the case, but I’ve gone through several spells of believing my actions influence what happens on the pitch, and I think a lot of people feel the same. Mitchell reminded me what the outside world must think of us demented fanatics.

He was fascinating when he spoke about the character of certain cricket players, admitting he loved seeing Ricky Ponting get angry. He spoke about watching Graham Gooch bat as England captain, it's best to quote it: ‘There were times when he looked so exhausted at the crease scoring run after run, almost as if he couldn’t face getting out because then he would have to re-approach the whole problem of how an earth he was going to bowl the other team out. I loved the contrast between the down-beat demeanour and all these runs being scored. He didn’t look like he was going to smash a bowling attack around the field, and then he was quietly doing so, with a facial expression as if he hadn’t noticed that he was.’ These are the wonderful observations only those with a certain distance from the action can make. The way in which sport allows you an unparalleled insight into the characters who play is one of the greatest pleasures of spectating. Think of Paul Collingwood’s relentless stubbornness or Kevin Pietersen’s inner demons. More to come on that soon in this blog.

Mitchell dabbled further into psychological analysis to say ‘There’s a defensiveness to England’s approach… We’ve tried not to lose too often – maybe that’s a part of our whole national psyche.’

Mitchell and Webb’s shows contain several sketches based around sport, and one listener pulled him up on his hypocrisy in referring to the England cricket side as ‘we’ having chastised football fans for doing just that. Keeping with the comic side of sport, Mitchell added: ‘One of the most endearing and comic things in cricket is when tail-enders have to bat to save games. Seldom in professional sport do you see someone having, at the highest level, to do something that they’re not really very good at. Other sports would benefit immensely if they got that element in. Hitting a ball with the bat is not something they were put on the earth to do, batting is not their strong point – and yet they are having to do against the best bowling in the world, and the stakes are incredibly high. And when they succeed, it’s the best underdog succeeding in sport you can get.’
It made me think of the almost unique multi-disciplinary nature of cricket, a sport in which you have to do two, or three, things, very different things. Or the drop goal penalty contest which settled last year’s Heineken Cup semi-final, with Cardiff Blues flanker Martyn Williams – ironically one of very few forwards to have scored a drop goal in open play – the unlucky villain who missed. The occasion raised fresh controversy over whether a shoot-out was the way to settle a drawn tie. Balancing the fact that putting top sportsmen way outside their comfort zone is highly entertaining with the notion that drop goals are not a fair way to decide the all-round game of rugby is a difficult proposition.

My mate Alex Richman wrote a blog entry recently entitled ‘We all love laughing at losers’. http://www.theyorker.co.uk/news/sport/3040 Typically entertaining stuff, but I don’t really agree. As Tim Henman and Jimmy White testify, we love our losers. There may, again, be something essentially British about supporting, and later consoling, the plucky underdog that Mitchell speaks of. And finding the equivalent of the 'endearing' tail-ender in modern sports where we no longer find affection and association with the players - most notably football - may be the way we can regain the love of the game.

If you have a lot of spare time and have finished listening to Mitchell, don’t track down this lunchtime’s TMS audio. The guest was Rolf Harris. What a plonker.