TV1 Screwed Up the Commonwealth Games

After reading about all the negative hype surrounding the Delhi Commonwealth Games, I found myself looking forward to watching the opening ceremony held last Sunday.

I guess, deep down there was a part of me that hopes to see some mishaps or technical glitches that will mar the occasion, you know, like watching F1 for the crashes. So, I tuned in to TV1 at around 9 pm & was immediately greeted by the familiar deep voice of Hasbullah Awang (who else?).

The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium looked stunning basking under the glow of soft lighting. The ceremony got underway with a performance featuring drums of all shapes & sizes. Fireworks went off & the spectators went wild....not a bad start I must say.

Then came the marching in of the competing countries, all 85 of them! Holy Queen, how did a tiny country like Britain ruled over such a large part of the world in the past?

Even more illogical is the fact that they managed to convinced their former colonies to happily participate in a sporting event held once every 4 years. Imagine asking China & South Korea to participate in a Japanese Empire Games!

Okay, back to the event. After the boring bits involving speeches by the VIPs, including one by a certain Prince Charles...

The ceremony commenced with yoga practitioners transforming the stadium into a large spiritual exercise class.

This was followed by a segment called 'Indian Railways'...but just when the colourful train was making its way into the stadium, TV1 decided to end the live telecast!

@&(+=*%^#$!

This is not the 1st time TV1 had screwed up the broadcast of the opening ceremony of a sporting event. Same thing happened during the Beijing Olympics. I think RTM secretly hates sports.

Found out from the newspaper the following day that everything went smoothly till the end. No sudden mass outbreak of dengue or any invasion of cobras.

So, I guess I didn't miss much then...

Beijing 08.08.08

This past few weeks has been quite hectic, coupled with no internet access in my residential college makes me unable to blog. But today is an exception, I am back home to watch the Olympics opening ceremony on the supposedly auspicious date of 08.08.08

The Beijing Olympics is already so over hyped even before it started & the opening ceremony shrouded in secrecy. I was excited but without astro, I had to rely on RTM 1 for the telecast. The self proclaimed 'Your Olympic Channel'


Being the official rights holder to broadcast the Games, any channel will grab the opportunity to provide intensive coverage. Well, any channel except RTM 1 that is. Because when I tune in at 8pm (the time the opening ceremony was suppose to begin) they were still busy spreading government propaganda, oops...I mean reporting the news.


The biggest show on earth is starting, anybody who wants to watch the news can tune in to other channel. Why do this? I had to wait for the end of the news before I manage to watch the telecast. That means a good 30 minutes gone.


Well, the actual ceremony is a bit disappointing for me really. It was supposed to be a showcase of 5000 years of Chinese culture, very grand yet lacking the 'wow' factor. I dunno, maybe it's due to my overtly high expectations or the fact that the Chinese culture is all too familiar to me. Or because I miss the first 30 minutes of it. Dammit!


When the competing countries started marching in, it was exciting at first. It's good to see Malaysia as the 10th nation coming out. After that, it's a fight to stay awake. But I made it all thanks to the RTM commentators for providing comic relief.


Like when New Zealand came out, one of them mistaken it for Swaziland. I also appreciate them providing me with useful facts, like Senegal is from Africa.


The marching in thing dragged on for almost 2 hours. 204 countries are participating & I can safely say I only knew about half of it. Erm...maybe less.

It's a relief when it ended & we can finally proceed to the most anticipated moment, the lighting of the Olympic flame. The guy running while hoisted in mid air is quite awesome. Once lit, fireworks exploded over Beijing.


But RTM decided to end the telecast before the fireworks show is over! Thanks RTM...you guys are really my Olympic channel.

Malaysian Open 08

By the time you read this, the Malaysian Open (or should I called it Super Series?) will be all over and Lee Chong Wei had been crowned champion for the 4th time.

Nevertheless, this post is about my experience watching badminton live for the 1st time.

Me and my friends (11 of us in total) went to catch the quarterfinals held last Friday in Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil. We bought the cheapest tickets available (RM18) for a seat on the upper tier of the stadium. Usually, I just pay RM1.20 for a teh tarik in a mamak stall and watch the big screen if I want to catch some badminton action.


The experience is certainly different.

From the upper tier we had a good view of all 4 courts but everything looks tiny from above. The mixed doubles matches started 1st. Obviously, nobody was interested. Most of my friends were busy gorging down pieces of KFC during those matches.

Look at the empty seats during the mixed doubles matches

Stands now full during the match involving Wong Mew Choo

Next up were the women's singles matches involving Wong Mew Choo against some Japanese gal. This is what we came to see. I mean Wong Mew Choo, not the Japanese gal ; ) We cheered and screamed for the duration of the match. When she won, the entire stadium erupted in joy. The atmosphere is electrifying!!

This is taken using my phone so it's kind of blurry

Lee Chong Wei versus Simon Santoso is next. The match is less exciting because Chong Wei dominated from the start till finish. The crowd was behind him and he won in straight sets.

After that came the women's doubles matches, the perfect time for a toilet break. Many of the spectators were apparently thinking the same too because the stadium became half empty during that time.

Ah Mok & Tze Quan pays close attention to the match involving Japanese women's doubles for some 'special' reason

For the men's doubles, we managed to sneaked into the more expensive lower tier. The view was so much more clearer.

I almost can touched them. Almost....

We even saw this uncle, the head cheerleader of the Malaysian team you often see on TV.


We were able to watch closely how the 2 Malaysian pairs lost so easily to their opponents. In one of the match, during the rubber set, Tan Fook-Wan Wah was actually 0-11 behind their opponents. How pathetic! The crowds were streaming out and I don't blamed them. Still, we stayed on to watched till the end of the game.

Actually, we stayed on to avoid the crowds & as a bonus managed to get a pic of Wong Choon Hann with Chandra Wijaya.


All in all, an enjoyable experience. Hopefully, our players will have better luck in the Olympics and Thomas Cup. Time to start praying guys.....