Less than a week into the cricket World Cup, and Giles Smith, of The Times, has spotted that one sports journalist at least has nabbed the dream job
The question on every viewer’s lips, as the cricket World Cup gets under way in the Caribbean, is: “How did David Gower swing it?†How did the silver-haired former England captain come to be presenting Sky Sports’ coverage from a five-star holiday villa in Barbados, with sumptuously stocked and shaded garden, private beach and exquisite sea views?
And so it has come to pass that Gower and his pals on the panel are on an all-expenses-paid, one-centre Caribbean leisure break in exclusive waterside accommodation. Morning finds them in a variety of Sky-branded leisure shirts, down by the sea, where the occasional fishing boat passes hypnotically across the horizon and the waves roll gently on to a series of hand-polished rocks. Periodically, spume flings up behind Gower’s right elbow. It’s not often you get to write that. Later, as the afternoon wears on, the panel retreats to the terrace, where Gower mixes the first rum cocktail of the day. OK, it’s not true about the cocktail. But it is about the terrace.
Not since the BBC moved Des Lynam into a softly lit, roof-top Parisian bachelor pad for the 1998 World Cup finals has a sporting event so clearly been made to offer a general lifestyle lesson. May I remind you that the cricket World Cup is scheduled to last 48 days. That’s a month and a half on the beach for Gower. Again, one can only shake one’s head and marvel.
Read the rest of Smith’s column by clicking here