Judging by the headlines today I’d be pretty hacked off if I was Joe Root….the BBC is far from alone in pushing this line….you have to ask why so much is made of Moeen Ali’s contribution….
Ashes 2015: Moeen Ali gives England the upper hand in Cardiff
Apparently Moeen is the ‘main man’…. Pint-sized Ashes: Moeen the main man …….he scored 77 and took two wickets.
What of Root? England were pretty much in free fall and it looked the usual story until Root, and Ballance, stabilised the team and set them back on the road to respectability with Root scoring 134….almost double what Ali scored. The BBC acknowledges that Root was actually there and scored some runs but that is the only mention in this match report….
| First Test, day two, Cardiff |
| England 430: Root 134, Moeen 77, Ballance 61, Starc 5-114 |
In the bowling Ali took two wickets but cost 67 runs in 14 overs whilst Anderson, in 16 overs, cost only 36 runs with 6 maiden overs….so is the BBC’s assertion really true?…..’Moeen is England’s key man’
To paint Ali as the saviour of the England team seems somewhat disengenuous when his record, in comparison to his team mates, whilst good is not quite as inspiring as the media are portraying.
Can only think ‘pressure’ has been applied on editors by certain activists to show Muslims in a good light and the result is a higher profile for a Muslim player and the attempt to turn him into a role model…play cricket not Jihad.
Never mind his open support for Hamas and a ‘free Palestine’.…of course it’s only natural that he show concern for the outrages inflicted upon the world by the dastardly Jews/Israelis…such as this……
A good role model indeed.
Like the leopard the BBC can’t change it’s spots.
The BBC is not worth a penny let alone £145,spin,spin and more spin.They should sell washing machines the amount of spinning they do.
So the BBC’s pro Islam propaganda just keeps on coming. What a gang of treacherous b*stards they are.
The BBC doesn’t really like English cricket. In their view of the world, wrongly of course, it is a game largely played by white, middle-class, men (bad, bad and bad), who all went to public school (very bad), and who all vote Tory (very, very bad). So they’d rather not talk about English cricket unless they can either criticize our team and our players. Not very long ago just after England won a superb series beating India 4-0 and became the world no.1 test team they bizarrely accused England without a shred of real evidence of being…..yes, you guessed it…… racist!!!
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/robertcolvile/100101874/english-cricket-is-racist-says-newsnight/
So Mr Ali is the new poster boy for BBC Cricket!
That Newsnight report was a disgrace, and I complained about it. The reporter knew next to nothing about cricket – anybody who has spent any time in the ECB setup knows that Asian players are heavily involved at every level of the game.
But, er:
“The BBC doesn’t really like English cricket.”
Right, so that’ll be why every ball of every England international – winter and summer – is broadcast on the radio then? Have you ever switched on Five Live in the summer? It’s wall-to-wall cricket commentary and discussion programmes.
Can you please post the BBC response to your complaint?
It was four years ago, and I’m not in the habit of filing boring bureaucratic emails, but the gist of it was “thank you for your comments. While we note your reservations, we believe that there is room for a wide range of opinions on Newsnight including the personal viewpoint expressed on this occasion. Thank you for your feedback which will be included in our blah blah blah blah meaningless waffle.”
The BBC no longer covers England cricket matches live on TV and as far as I’m aware don’t even have highlights of England matches. They know they can’t not cover English cricket so their approach is one of trivializing it, making fun of it, belittling the English players and the game through radio and online coverage. The inane drivel posted on the so called cricket pages is nothing short of ridiculous – examples below. Their commentators and journalists all seem to think they are comedians but most of it isn’t even funny – as I say just a BBC way to knock that most English of sports. They really like nothing more than to get stuck into our players with their criticism, especially our captain Alistair Cook. Cook is an Ashes winning captain and one of our best ever players – but is white, middle-class, and went to public school! So a fair target for the BBC – doesn’t tick many diversity boxes you see. A selection of the insults thrown at Cook by BBC commentators is that only his wife and family think he is good enough to be the England captain and should resign as he has ‘scrambled’ brains. Nice.
Some examples of BBCs inane drivel on yesterdays’ err….cricket commentary…
“My friend had a date pinched by Chris Gayle. He and his date got into the lift up to the restaurant, Chris Gayle walked in after and by the time the lift had got to the restaurant’s floor the girl had decided to go with Chris Gayle instead.”
“My mum and dad had a bathroom shop in Billericay, Graham Gooch once came in to buy a bathroom and sat on the loos in the showroom to try them for size! His Merc was parked outside with licence plate LBW 333.”
“Roger Federer is a huge cricket fan. He doesn’t just love it – he’s got an intimate knowledge of it. He knows his short leg from silly point, let’s put it that way. You can watch the Fed in action against Andy Murray in the Wimbledon semi-final by clicking here.”
They think this stuff is funny like making snide patronizing little digs at the English culture every given opportunity…’there goes Jos Butler off for his cucumber sandwiches’. An innocent enough fairly harmless joke mocking the English desire to build meal breaks into our sports you might think? But would they ever see Moeen Ali leaving the pitch and say something like; ‘There goes Moeen Ali off for a quick prayer.’? Unlikely. So the whole purpose is to ridicule the sport and take a swipe at the English and our culture. For the BBC even an innocent game of cricket presents an opportunity to expand their leftist agenda.
I can’t help recalling W1a and the weather man…
Me too. Let’s not take away Moeen’s achievement but let it complement Joe Root and the others. Cricket is a team game after all.
Since Alan is clearly unfamiliar with the format of Test cricket, perhaps I can enlighten him.
Test matches typically take place over five days. This means that each day has its heroes and highlights, which are reflected in the reporting.
For instance, on Day 1 of the current Ashes Test, the undoubted hero was Joe Root with his brilliant century. This was marked by the BBC website with several stories, whose headlines included
‘Root Shows the Way for England’
‘Root Century Galvanizes England’
‘Root Has No Issue With Cardiff Pitch’
These are all separate pages. ‘Root Shows the Way for England’ was the headline of the main report of that day’s play.
Yesterday, on the other hand, Root did not bowl and did not bat. Moeen, meanwhile, scored more runs than any other England player, and took more wickets. He was clearly the player of the day.
So yeah, the BBC *could* have chosen to concentrate on something that happened the previous day, although that would have been more than a little weird. But then in the weird world of Alan, it’s preferable to report two-day-old news than to give any praise at all – however justified – to a Muslim.
C & C Dept….who elected you Hall Monitor?
Do you think we don’t notice the ridiculous over-the-top adulation AlBeeb heap on ANY efnik but more particularly any Moozalem who happens to do ANYTHING non-confrontational on that particular day?
I smell a Troll .
I believe it’s called cognitive dissonance when reality does not conform to your expected world ,and you refuse to acknowledge or believe it.
Do you think you will ever accept reality or will you imbibe the AlBeeb Kool-Aid until Sharia comes?
Did you bother to read my comment before launching into your incoherent rant?
Who *was* the hero of yesterday then? Alan tries to claim that Anderson was unfairly overlooked by the BBC report, but he only took a single wicket to Moeen’s two, and scored one run. Not exactly heroic. So whose contribution *should* they have featured then? Go on, tell me, I’m all ears.
Meanwhile, the front page of the BBC Sport site currently carries this headline:
‘Farah “swore at” British rival Vernon after win’
Not doing a very good job at talking up the ‘efniks’ and the ‘Moozalems’, as you so charmingly call them, are they?
Ah…I see Anderson’s run score is apparently relevant when assessing his performance…and yet Root’s isn’t…..what’s that saying about liars? If you’re going to be a liar better have a good memory…..25 minutes seems to be your limit after which everything you’ve said before gets forgotten.
BUT ROOT WASN’T BATTING YESTERDAY!!!!
Root scored his runs on WEDNESDAY.
Ali scored his runs YESTERDAY.
THAT is why Root’s wonderful innings was ALL OVER the BBC website yesterday but Ali’s all-round performance is leading the news today.
Let’s see how the leading independent cricket website (cricinfo.com) is reporting yesterday’s play. Well, they give it this headline:
“Moeen stars as England’s pressure brings rewards”
Complete with an interview with Ricky Ponting where he singles Moeen out for praise.
Do you get it yet, Alan? Root was the star of WEDNESDAY, Moeen was the star of THURSDAY.
Not that complicated, really, is it?
No….the BBC’s claim is that Ali is England’s ‘main man’ and their ‘key player’…..not on one day but overall…and it’s not true….he’s played well but not batted anywhere near as well as Root nor bowled as well as Anderson.
simple really.
“.the BBC’s claim is that Ali is England’s ‘main man’ and their ‘key player’…..not on one day but overall”
This is complete falsehood. The only place in which the phrase ‘main man’ was used was the headline to the Five Live highlights of DAY TWO. Nowhere do they claim that he was the star ‘overall’, as you suggest. Can you prove otherwise?
“simple really.”
Yes, quite simple. The premise of your entire post is wrong.
‘Main man’ is not an expression you’d use to praise one day’s performance. ‘Main man’ unequivocally means best in the team – full stop.
So when the BBC mentions Ali’s score for a previous day as part of their hype that is a ‘little weird’ then?
‘Moeen Ali scored 77 and took two important wickets as England gained the upper hand in the first Ashes Test against Australia.’
How was he ‘player of the day’? As you’re not including runs then you have to go on his bowling alone, which is just as well as Root scored vastly more than Ali, and Anderson was the better bowler on the day.
So when the BBC claims that Ali is ‘England’s key man’ who gave England the upper hand, all on his own, it’s not true.
As for not giving any praise to a Muslim…if you weren’t so determinedly blinkered in your desperation to label everyone a bigot you might have seen where I said he was undoubtedly good…just not as good as the BBC et al are claiming.
Do I really have to spell it out again?
ON DAY ONE, Root scored a century. This fact was reported all over the BBC website, in THREE separate stories, in the headlines of which Root’s name featured prominently.
ON DAY TWO, Root did not bat and did not bowl. On that same day, Moeen scored more runs and took more wickets than any other England player. Both as batsman and bowler he was the outstanding player.
The story your post is about was the match report for DAY TWO, a day on which he batted and ROOT DID NOT. That being the case, Ali’s half-century and two wickets clearly show him to be the player of the day.
How can I make it any clearer?
You might have noticed that this site is NOT a site dedicated to Cricket Anoraks but one dedicated to exposing B BC bias ?
It’s a familiar trick to resort to ad hominem attacks(‘incoherent rants’ anyone?) and to veer off onto ‘show me the evidence’ sidetracks ,as if this denies the obvious tenor and direction of the Beeb narrative .
If you can’t recognise the validity of that point,why are you here?
….Oh wait , you don’t work for Auntie ,do you?????
Oh wait , you don’t work for Auntie ,do you?????
Well if not then they are a real moron who not only feels the need to defend a multi billion media corporation they also pay said corporation for doing it’s dirty work !
“You might have noticed that this site is NOT a site dedicated to Cricket Anoraks but one dedicated to exposing B BC bias ?”
Argue with Alan, he’s the one who decided to post about cricket. He attempted to show bias where none existed; that’s why I engaged, not because I wanted to have an argument about cricket with somebody who patently knows nothing about it.
“It’s a familiar trick to resort to ad hominem attacks(‘incoherent rants’ anyone?)”
Do you know what ‘ad hominem’ even means? ‘incoherent rants’ is an attack on your argument, not you personally.
“and to veer off onto ‘show me the evidence’ sidetracks”
Hardly a ‘sidetrack’ when all the evidence available – and a lot of it – shows up this post as being mendacious and plain wrong. Sorry if you don’t like my *evidence*, but it does show Alan to be catastrophically wrong. You’re welcome to continue to rely on emotion and prejudice, but I do prefer to keep my arguments evidence-based if that’s OK.
Whoooosh, you missed the main point of my question again ,didn’t you?
What is the point of someone of your leanings posting on this site?
You’re obviously a spoiler-why don’t you waste your time on the NULabia or LibDum sites?
I’ll bet you don’t bother reading the numerous posts on here that re-iterate there is NO POINT in arguing with LeftLiberal T**ts as they think they have the moral high ground on every subject?
So what if I don’t care about Cricket-it’s a GAME !!
The name of this site ,Mr Evidence-based, is Biasedbbc and we want to discuss this insidious cultural marxism that the B BC routinely promotes…..if THAT’S ok??
“we want to discuss this insidious cultural marxism that the B BC routinely promotes” EVEN IF WE HAVE TO MAKE IT UP!
Fixed that for you.
Sorry, can’t hear you. My fingers are in my ears.
Is this for real or a troll? There seem to be a lot of dodgy comments at the moment. I assume it is to discredit the site.
Obviously it is – and nothing could better demonstrate the moral bankruptcy of the Left that when defeated in a logical argument, they resort to smears, lies and fabrications.
Do you not think the fact you can’t tell should be a bit of a red flag?
Ali is a good player of course. I did read an interview with him in which he refers to a convert as a revert.
This I thought was odd as the term is contentious to say the least and usually indicates a fundamentalist mindset.
FYI the term revert assumes that to be a Muslim is the natural order of things and always has been and all other beliefs are then by definition illegitimate and heretical.
This is not far from the NF imbeciles who used to discount any England goals scored by black players. Can’t we all just hate Australians for a bit (nb irony).
Ali really was outstanding batting with the tail allowing to reach a totally unexpected 430 and importantly keeping the Aussies in the field for far longer than they expected sapping morale. He then bowled well dismissing both Clarke the captain and the currently world no.1 rated Steve Smith so a very significant effort especially on a wicket felt unlikely to offer much to the spinners on day 2. I am a supporter and frequent Visitor to this site but fear that this article damages its credibility. The Telegraph today is also full of praise for Ali using his names in the headline. It may well be Stuart Broad who hogs the headlines tomorrow with any luck. Alan just trying too hard with this one.
Sorry but Alan is picking on the BBC’s ‘main man ‘ narrative and he has good cause whether or not the man played well isn’t the point the BBC picking one player based on his race and religion for special status is !
“Sorry but Alan is picking on the BBC’s ‘main man ‘ narrative”
That ‘narrative’ was a headline for the highlights to Day 2, on which he was, er, the main man. I’ll buy a pint for anybody who can prove otherwise.
The BBC puffs up any sports person who is ethnic and represents the UK. Hence the deification of Mo F , who by the way only lived here a short time before leaving for the USA to be coached by the drug using chap , and hype about Moeen Ali, who is a very ordinary bowler, plus of course a whole range of other assorted ethnic minority representatives.If you are white and British then the BBC is fairly grudging in its praise because it doesn’t suit the narrative of multy culty acceptance by Brits that the BBC seems to regard as its main duty. To me the promotion of Mo F by the BBC was so over the top that I thought it de- valued both his undoubted personal achievements at the Olympics and indeed the games themselves. The UK didn’t ‘win’ all these medals, we just handed out pass ports to people who won them. Just because they have a pass port, probably handed out by Labour, they are not British.
I am tired of all this multy culty stuff and wish the BBC would bugger off.
Sorry C&CD. Whilst you continue to state the obvious so succinctly and accurately you will have zero credibility. Thems the rules. Try something like… Ali only did well because the Aussies assumed he was wearing a suicide vest provided by the license payer. Joe Roots form on the other hand was due to his indigenous plucky britishness and therefore Alan’s post is well informed and not at all discriminatory.
That way you will soon find your feet around here. David Brims might take you under his wing and share his well rounded world view if you are deemed worthy.
I find it amusing that somebody who spends half his time pointing out other people’s mistakes is incapable of acknowledging one of his own. It is bloody obvious that he is badly wrong.
I disagree. Wrong suggests he weighed up evidence and came to a conclusion. Given how emphatic his post and subsequent defences are, I suggest he saw a Muslim succeed and simply had to denigrate everything about it without caring a hoot for the facts at hand. Not wrong so much as wilfully ignorant knowing of course that he would be widely endorsed by the mob without having to do any thinking whatsoever.
The same happened with Jensen Button, when he was winning F1 races for McLaren & Hamilton was crashing out. From the BBC reports, there was barely a mention of JB actually winning, they only mentioned Hamilton, had a bit of bad luck or something.The Evil **nts were only interested, in their Brown eyed boy, JB was just getting in their way, Hamilton could do no wrong.Racist BBC bastards.
So what’s England’s ‘main man’, our ‘key player’, the man who ‘gave England the upper hand’ been up to recently?
Moeen Ali 15
Joe Root 60.
‘Main man’ and ‘key player’ must have a different meaning at the BBC.
They were specifically referring to yesterday. Jesus H. You really are impossibly obtuse. If Wayne Rooney scores a hat trick on a saturday afternoon he is ‘The main man’ If van Persie scores 4 on Wednesday he will then dominate the back pages as the headline grabber but the world keeps turning even on Planet Alan because neither is a muslim.
Stop digging. Your entire argument is a grubby smear and does nobody here with a moducum of intelligence any favours.
Ah look whose turned up, ‘Arkle’ as you call yourself now…our bigoted friend who doesn’t know he’s a bigot but happily smears everyone else with such accusations.
Its clear as day, to most people, what the BBC said….they were not limiting the comment to one day but to the England team in general…. Ali is not the ‘main man’.
If the BBC were solely referring to this moment of ‘glory’ why then did they put this piece of career hype up under the heading ‘England’s key man’?….
You seem unaware, as is CCD, that cricket is a team game played over several days and is not settled on one day by one palyer….comparing it to different football games held on different days is ‘obtuse’ to say the least.
Alis good but so far he’s neither the main man nor the key man of this match.
If you give your own bigotry a rest you might actually understand what is said instead of the usual automatic gainsaying of anything and everything.
No clue what you are crying about. I don’t watch BBC or TV full stop. I do however listen to R4 and the excellent World Service as well as some of the comedy and drama on 4extra. Being disabled and largely housebound I find it passes the time.
If you have me confused with someone else then that is far beyond my control.
You seem unaware, as is CCD, that cricket is a team game played over several days and is not settled on one day by one palyer….comparing it to different football games held on different days is ‘obtuse’ to say the least.
Those who support the original post seem thin on the ground don’t you think? It is a nonsense and collapses with the slightest scrutiny. I took issue with it for that reason.
Have you checked what the aussie sports pages say about yesterday? British press left right and centre? You will notice that Ali is singled out for praise by all and sundry.
He was dismissed for 15 today so if the BBC eulogise him tonight/tomorrow then you have will have a solid case and I for one will take no issue with you or anyone else who cries foul. As it stands your post is completely without merit or integrity.
“You seem unaware, as is CCD, that cricket is a team game played over several days and is not settled on one day by one palyer….comparing it to different football games held on different days is ‘obtuse’ to say the least.” Yet you can single out Joe Root after one day? That told me.
The BBC singled out Ali so Root was put up as proof that the BBC’s assertion was wrong…I can only go on the days they have played…and so far Root has been obviously the most important player over the match….a time frame that the BBC was also using not merely judging Ali over one day….they couldn’t have made it clearer as proved by the career stats they used.
Bungled copy and paste in first of the above posts. Apologies.
‘Main man’ for a day, eh. Interesting. A first in sports reporting, methinks.
Whilst I welcome Ali as one of those rare examples of an English Muslim playing for his country, I’d be even more impressed if he sang the national anthem – especially for the positive message it would send out about Islam in this country. Instead I’ll continue to assume it’s Islam first, English (or British) second. What an opportunity missed.
This Great God Sport DOES reveal the arrogance of the BBC though.
Witness Gary Richardson in his post-match interview with Andy Murray earlier.
He`d lost to Roger Federer-but , by Garys tone; the BBC clearly assume that they can put Andy right, just as they can empty chair an acting Prime Minister who refuses to attend their summary executions and ambushes.
The BBC clearly assume that they`re born to rule-run business better that Leahy at Tescos, play tennis better than our best players and obviously put Cameron in his basket as they tell the rest of us what to think.
Arrogant impotent puff adders-for Gods sake they`ve got to go.
Saviles laundry hamper might be free now…wankers!
Frankly, its all about Beards. The clean shaven BBC are keen on showing off Muslims in beards. Its a fetish thing, the Sport is inconsequential if they have the right ‘racism’ (not English) then its a win -win situation and Clare Balding can be the Maiden bowled over by a man in Whiskers as break from ‘Tennis’ or the’ Horses’ or Saturdays dreadful ‘News-quiz’ which. Personally the joys of radio is that at one time Cricket was worth listening too and that it was fun and English peculiar in an English way we shared with India and the Aussies. The commentary was often as entertaining as the match (who cares who won anyway), The BBC has changed. It has purged all life out of Sport into ‘statements’ of ‘diversity’ agenda which is not what Sport is about. The BBC makes everything into a political agenda which for me is a big turn-off on Radio and TV. That is ‘in-effect’ the BBC has killed its own Sport aspiration for a ‘politically correct’ insistence on reporting winning Islamic beards as fully representative of the game. It’s not cricket, its all about Beards. Clare Balding has one somewhere.
David, FFS, please don’t raise a CRICKET point in future,as this will enrage all the CRICKET anoraks .They will then seek to disparage EVERYTHING we say on this site on the basis of Wisden or some such irrelevant nonsense.
These people cannot see the wood from the trees.They always make me think of the Mensheviks in Russia (the Evolutionary socialists) who were the first mob to be done away with by the Bolsheviks(the Revolutionary socialists) when the doodoo hit the fan in 1917.
Person at 10.32am, not me.
David, Dezi loves to quote you and he’ll claim that racist post is actually byyou so try to add an avatar.
The nazi calling himself Yes! is confusing what his fellow fascist wrote when claiming to be you and what is in his own head. These Beeboid drones are not very bright and can only do as ordered by Big Brotther.
I’m just seething that because I am working in Europe at the moment I cannot gain any access to Test Match Special due to ‘rights issues’. I have paid my licence fee, I think the ruddy BBC could give me access to its programmes wherever I happen to be!
And that’s the BBC’s fault how exactly?
The BBC only owns the rights to broadcast Test cricket in the UK and dependent territories. They’re not allowed to stream TMS anywhere outside these territories because they don’t own the rights. The ECB (the cricket administrators) retain these rights or sell them to overseas broadcasters. The only way you could listen to TMS in Europe is if the BBC bought worldwide rights from the ECB, which would be a massive additional cost, and would result in an audience of hundreds of millions of non-licence fee payers getting the benefit of something paid for by the UK licence fee. Which would be insane.
One has to admire the brass neck bug. Really. The OP is reaching and falling on his arse. Was Ali held up as a hero after the first test upon completion? Of course not. Alan will be crying in his cocoa that his prejudices were not borne out. Cheap, underhand dog whistling. Quelle surprise.