Yachting: What a pathetic pack of bleaters they are!

By Murray Deaker

What is more important - winning the America's Cup or pleasing the international media?

I would have thought the question was irrelevant, but the fuss and furore that followed Russell Coutts' no-show at the press conference after Team New Zealand's victory in race one demands evaluation.

Coutts decided not to go because he wanted to be part of an immediate debrief with his crew. If this meant no more than sitting around having a couple of beers with the blokes and enjoying the moment, or, at the other extreme, hovering over a computer with some statistical boffin analysing the data from the race, it doesn't matter.

Coutts, the experienced campaigner, wanted to share the moment with the group with whom he has spent the past five years plotting and planning strategy. Why not do an immediate evaluation before the moment is lost?

It wasn't as though adequate replacements weren't sent to the media conference. Fronting up were Warwick Fleury, Simon Daubney and Tony Rae, three veterans of the successful 1995 America's Cup campaign who have a container load of yachting medals and trophies between them.

The kerfuffle that followed was an insult to their expertise, experience and intent. Yet it was totally predictable.

The media wanted the STAR. We have become so used to personalising achievements that we look to the individual and not the team when trying to analyse and evaluate sporting success.

It is not by chance that the New Zealand challenge is called Team New Zealand. The emphasis on "team" has obviously been missed by media, which habitually focus on the David Beckhams, the Michael Jordans, the Jonah Lomus and the Brian Laras of this world, all individuals who get more headlines than their team.

When the press boys from overseas got their noses out of joint they stirred up the local lads. At the end of the day the result was that the Coutts' no-show got about as much coverage as the race itself. Pathetic.

Frankly, Russell is usually so diffident and evasive in front of a microphone that it is a waste of time asking him a question anyway. He is a sailor not a speaker.

It should be the media's job to write about his sailing ability not his speaking ability. Take it from one who has tried to interview him off and on over a 10-year period - extracting hen's teeth is an easier task than getting Coutts to talk.

On the other hand, get Simon Daubney wound up and you can go away for a coffee break while he entertains the listeners.

I don't turn to the sporting pages of my paper to read what one of the competitors said. I want the opinion of the sporting journalist who presumably has been trained to critically analyse, evaluate and determine not only the event itself but also the participants in it.

I want to know why he or she thinks Team New Zealand beat Prada, which boat is faster downwind and upwind, who made mistakes, where the critical moments in the race were, who stuffed up and who did well.

Coutts isn't going to tell me any of that information until the regatta is over.

If the journalist can't do that, he shouldn't be writing or talking about the event. Unfortunately, too many journalists have fallen into the routine of simply reporting what the competitor said, not what he did.

Coutts' job is to win the America's Cup. My job is to write about it, talk about it and comment on it. We would be in real trouble if I was driving NZL 60.

We would be in equally bad shape if Russell was to do the writing or the talking.

* Murray Deaker is the host of Radio ZB's Sportstalk.