BBC should have separate Sports Person and Sports Personality prizes

HUW TURBERVILL: Stuart Broad couldn't make it back-to-back cricket winners of the prestigious prize but the way the award is structured needs a rethink

"There is no debate more tiresome," said one of my friends about the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

But for something so tiresome, we don’t half expend enough hours debating it.

Cricket fans’ hopes were dashed last Sunday when Stuart Broad finished outside the top three of the main award. I’d like to think that he finished fourth.

Of the other two that missed out, Ronnie O’Sullivan is a real genius, and I love watching him play snooker. But he’s a bad sport at times. His shoulder barge with Ali Carter in 2018 was unsavoury. He also had a row with Mark Allen a month back. Everyone loves a bad boy, but him winning SPOTY is not for me, I’m afraid. Please don’t give me a rocket, Ronnie fans.

And then there was Tyson Fury. He told everyone not to vote for him! Frankly, I was not about to argue with him.

Broad showed real character and personality after he was left out of the first Test against West Indies at the Ageas Bowl.

He made his point brilliantly. After letting off some steam, or having a “hissy fit” according to The Guardian’s Jonathan Liew, he was recalled and took 29 wickets in the next five Tests. There was even a very welcome return to form with the bat, with 62 against West Indies at Old Trafford.

His backstory, told by his mum, was moving – his premature birth, his growing pains. He spoke well on Sunday, looked dashing, and hopefully won cricket a few more fans. It was always a tall order on this occasion to hope that he would follow in the footsteps of winners Ben Stokes (2019), Andrew Flintoff (2005), Sir Ian Botham (1981), David Steele (1975) and Jim Laker (1956); or Botham and Geoff Boycott (second); and Botham, Flintoff and Graham Gooch (third). 

^{Domestic cricket didn't get a single mention during the BBC's review of 2020}

I’m not sure cricket is truly implanted back in BBC TV’s consciences yet anyhow, after just three live T20Is last summer – two men’s and one women’s. They haven’t shown a live men’s Test match since 1998.

Even when I was a youngster I used to be quite infuriated by the skimpy time devoted to cricket in the BBC’s annual review, but then I’ve always been biased. In recent years since the Beeb lost the cricket to Channel 4 in 1999, cricket might as well not have existed in the round-up, although James Anderson (2018) and Anya Shrubsole (2017) have recently made the shortlist.

County fans were also infuriated that the Bob Willis Trophy or Blast wasn’t mentioned (weird when you consider the brilliant coverage it got on BBC Radio and iPlayer).

As it was, jockey Hollie Doyle was voted third by the public; Liverpool’s long-awaited-title-winning captain Jordan Henderson was second, and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was first.

Anyhow, back to that tiresome debate.

The BBC should redefine their sports awards to two main categories: Sports Person of the Year and Sports Personality of the Year.

Because the title really is hugely ambiguous, and yes, leads to long and essentially tiresome debates.

^{Marcus Rashford's off-the-field impact wasn't enough to earn him a nomination for the main award}

For me, the sports personality of the year was clearly Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford. Whatever your politics, you must agree that he showed enormous personality by making his stand on child poverty – head and shoulders above the other candidates (and yes he scored some goals, especially in the Champions League).

Those who argue that the award should go to just the highest achiever – and there’s no doubt Hamilton deserved it in those circumstances: he is surely the greatest F1 driver ever – seem to be ignoring guidelines issued on the BBC website in 2008.

In a point also made by the excellent Jonathan Northcroft in The Sunday Times, winners should be “the sportsman or woman whose actions have most captured the public’s imagination”. Come on, that is clearly Rashford. Here is the full criteria anyhow.

Funnily enough, if you go the Wikipedia page for SPOTY, it also suggests you don’t have to be British.

“The recipient must be either British or reside and play a significant amount of their sport in the UK.”

Mo Salah, anyone?

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