Late is better than never
Saturday night's Second Test between South Africa and New Zealand was another superb example of why southern hemisphere rugby is more than half a world ahead of its Five Nations counterparts.
For their third successive clash (including the Tri-Nations Series) the Springboks and All Blacks kept us enthralled until the final whistle with clashes of power and unrelenting excitement.
At least you would have been enthralled as long as you avoided knowing the score as the game was shown a couple of hours after it finished as opposed to the previous two STAR screenings which were live live (as opposed to the strange animal the delayed live broadcast). But this isn't a knock against STAR.
After they failed to carry the early matches of the Tri-Nations we should be grateful for anything. And it is understandable that they gave priority to the Malaysian Badminton Open as that sport has huge popularity here.
Besides, it's easy enough to avoid hearing a score for a few hours. Unfortunately the third Test won't be on live either and won't be remotely delayed live either. It's on at 11am the following day (Sunday September 1). This week's major live event is the US Open tennis tournament on STAR Sports for eight hours a day. Even before a ball has been hit the event has been plagued by controversy surrounding the draw for the men's competition which saw Yevgeni Kafelnikov pull out in protest. Action starts from Flushing Meadows today at 11 pm until 4 am and starts again tomorrow at 7.30 am. If you couldn't get along to the Hong Kong leg of the Asian Beach Volleyball circuit recently you wouldn't be blamed. It was pouring with rain most of the time and you should have been at home watching sport on television.
STAR Sports show three days of highlights each day starting tonight at 6.30 pm. The next two nights shows begin at 9 pm. After all the Olympic saturation coverage it would have been a shame if the Paralympic Games had been completely overlooked.
Pearl, ATV and Wharf Cable have all given a couple of minutes a day, treating the Games and athletes with respect.
