If his on-air conversation with David Gower is anything to go by, Michael Holding has morphed into Victor Meldrew - seemingly overnight.
In the space of five minutes we had Mikey moaning about the England bowlers practising on the edge of the square between innings - with the referee's permission apparently. Then a follow-up rant about England employing a substitute fielder whilst Andrew Flintoff was changing his boots.
In each case the targets of his ire were the umpires for not properly enforcing the laws of the game.
I don't remember Holding being quite so fastidious at Old Trafford in 1976 when the umpires were pretty lax in enforcing the 'intimidatory bowling' laws.
When it comes to polarising opinion, Mikey is a standout. Fans either love his commentary (mostly because they are shallow fatheads who love his cool accent), or they think he's an enormous know-nothing blowhard. I tend to the latter, but still give him a few brownie points for speaking his mind, no matter how scattergun his mind happens to be.
ReplyDeleteHe now seems to be verging on self-parody, which is a shame.
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