Graeme Smith on his first appearance in England
I was going to start this blog with a lazy cliché about London buses, having
already posted today, but in the end I didn’t have the heart to.
This week has seen the start of the Oscar Pistorius trial,
and due to the wall-to-wall coverage available, it has got everywhere.
Despite the fact there has been nothing ground-breaking
revealed yet, the coverage and nature of the trial has caused a global media
storm, and every news website and paper is full of copy trying to polish what
has been said so far.
The gunshot in the restaurant had already been broken
elsewhere, and the cross-examination of the neighbours has bordered on the
ridiculous as the defence lawyer continues to try and discredit their accounts
as acts of collusion or assumption.
Without a jury in South African courts, you might imagine
the games played by lawyers would be restricted by the simple notion that the
judge should have seen it all before, and fall for none of it. This clearly
isn’t the case.
There is an argument that with the trial being televised,
the pantomime element of the questioning and witness cross-examination may be
encouraged, but whatever the reason, it doesn’t quite sit right.
The serious nature of the trial seems to be being flouted by
defence lawyer Barry Roux, and to a lesser extent the state-prosecutor Gerrie
Nel, as they play games with each other and the witnesses. Somebody was killed,
and now somebody else’s liberty and freedom is at stake, this doesn’t seem like
the time for games.
Barry Roux has his back to the witness now. A hint of pantomime in the courtroom.
— andrew harding (@BBCAndrewH) March 6, 2014
Follow the tweets of Andrew Harding
for an indication of what I’m trying to get at here: If you disagree with me,
feel free to say so.
Elsewhere in South
Africa , on a more directly sporting note,
Graeme Smith has retired. This can only be good news for England .
His first two Test matches on English soil saw him compile
double centuries as England ’s
bowlers simply could not work out how to bowl to this leg-side favouring
batsman with an obscure technique.
He’ll be disappointed with his contributions in his final
series, and that he has finished with a defeat to Australia ,
but he should be proud of the career he had, and his record of seeing off England
captains.
Plucked out of relative obscurity to lead his country at the
age of 22, after just eight previous Test matches, Smith has been exceptional
for a decade. Once he got in against England , you may as well have
turned the TV off, because he was going to be there for a while.
Like many international captains before him, there will
probably be a media career for Smith, if he fancies it, whatever he does I’m
sure we haven’t seen the last of him.
To throw in another loose connection, I’ll try and stick to
the theme of changing careers.
I have now, barring a catastrophic failing in the Skills
Tests, confirmed my place for the next academic year on a teacher-training
course.
The commute will be better, the career should suit my
personality better, and history is most definitely my subject.
I took a place on the Sports Journalism course out of a
combination of intrigue and the desire to rule out other options before setting
my mind to teaching.
There are elements of journalism that don’t quite sit right
with me, and while I’m sure I’d enjoy producing content for websites, magazines
or programmes, I don’t have the necessary desire to search for a story that a
journalist needs, or enough of a one-track mind to stick to the job at hand regardless
of the consequences.
This week I have been told that I’d have made a good
journalist by more than one person, but teachers have also told me that I’d be
good at that too.
I don’t want to close the door completely on anything, and I
still want to get my MA and NCTJ diploma, but I can’t see a scenario in which I
end up at a local paper that’s for sure.
Teaching is about guiding and helping and this fits better
with how I see a successful day. If I have managed to get through it without
upsetting anyone, and even helped in some way, this is a good day.
Hopefully I’ll have a few of those next year, and for years
to come…
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