Commonwealth Games - What a Waste

Well last night was the opening ceremony of the biggest underwhelming event in Australian sporting history.  I am sorry, but I just can’t get excited about the Comm Games and I am sure I am not alone.  Now I will state I didn’t watch the ceremony last night but I had running commentary from Niki and the Girls in the other room.  The girls were really excited about the Games and wanted to sit up and watch it.  It started at 8:30 (past their bedtimes) but we did the patriotic thing and let them stay up.  8:30 comes and you then sat through an hour of banal interviews of athletes and discussing how “excited” we all are.  OK, so Channel 9 made good use of a captive audience to plug their celebs and sports stars on their books.

Then the ceremony starts well with a unique flying Tram (very Melbourne) and the girls are finally pumped (Ray Martin just doesn’t appeal to the 5-6 yr old set).  But it degenerates straight off the bat to the politicians and dignitaries having their say, which whilst a necessity, I thought would have been better placed at the end of the artistic part of the ceremony.

Soon enough cries of “boring” are heard form the girls and they get restless as the Queen prattles on.  At this stage, I am justifying my stance of watching Little Britain on Channel 2 and soon enough, the girls go quiet as they’re asleep.

Niki persists and all I hear from the other room of “Oh my God” and “That’s ridiculous” as it seems that big fat Blinky Bill style Koalas, rubber thongs and the captains of the AFL teams dominate the remainder of the ceremony in front of large sections of empty seats.

Well done Melbourne, you’ve just proven once again how you can totally wreck what should be a national event and turn it into an Eddie McGuire AFL promo.  Nobody cares about AFL outside of Melbourne and whilst you may get away with it in Australia, people from Tanzania, Canada and Trinidad & Tobago have no idea who Nathan Buckley is and we in Sydney don’t give a toss.  (Flame away Tommy, but you know it’s true).

Well enjoy the games Melbourne, but the First Test from South Africa starts tonight and I will be watching that after Lost.

Listening:  Black Eyed Peas “Monkey Business” – perhaps one of the best albums I have downloaded from BitTorrent yet.