Peter Montgomery's exclusion from the Louis Vuitton regatta sparked outrage last week but, as Paul Lewis writes, there are many sides to the political coin of the America's Cup.
KEY POINTS:
Valencia 2007 could be the last time we see veteran yachting commentator Peter Montgomery in an America's Cup television context - or a New Zealand one, anyway.
An outcry ensued after the Herald on Sunday revealed last week that Emirates Team New Zealand chief Grant Dalton had asked for Montgomery to be excluded from TVNZ's coverage of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. That hubbub has also revealed the sharp-edged politics that float just beneath the surface of the America's Cup and associated events, like icebergs waiting for unsuspecting keels.
As ever in such political circumstances, there is much not being said. This is an attempt to present a rounded view of something roundly unpleasant but which can be better understood when a few of the unsaid things are known.
There are four main issues here:
1) Dalton v Montgomery.
2) Influence over broadcasters.
3) Montgomery v TVNZ.
4) Political alignments.
Those issues are covered below:
*Dalton and Montgomery have had longstanding differences, dating back many years when Montgomery was perceived to be siding with those breaking away from, and posing a danger to, Team New Zealand. There is no doubt that Montgomery has been widely perceived to be close to Alinghi and to skipper Brad Butterworth in particular.
*Team New Zealand are paying for the TV coverage of the Louis Vuitton. He who pays the piper... However, TVNZ told Montgomery he would not be required for this series before Dalton pursued his agenda and asked who the broadcast crew was going to be, according to sources within TVNZ. As it is not live coverage and as Montgomery was not needed for his typical on-the-water analyst and interviewer duties, TVNZ are saying that was behind their move to exclude him.
Some will see that as a sop, a convenient point at which to permit Team New Zealand's views to take precedence. But there are also other considerations, about which people are saying very little, regarding Montgomery's performance in recent times.
That comes in the same breath as the acknowledgment that Montgomery has done vast things for yachting and sailors in this country. But there have been questions raised about his performance at recent events like the Beijing Olympics and the Monsoon Cup. Montgomery has also criticised TVNZ for its role and that, as much as anything, might see him playing no further role in any TVNZ coverage of the America's Cup - whenever that is.
The Herald Online website has run an interesting thread on the issue since it broke last Sunday. At last count, the responses were running 54 per cent to 46 per cent in favour of Dalton's move - which will surprise many. Some of the pro-Dalton emails contain unflattering references to Montgomery's style.
None of this will necessarily stop Montgomery popping up in the America's Cup for another broadcaster and I hope he does. I can still remember, back in 1984, a generous Montgomery helping me with a fella called Russell Coutts at the Los Angeles Olympics at no advantage to himself.
*Sports bodies interfering with broadcasters is not new. It happened in Valencia, when I wrote in the Herald on Sunday how America's Cup TV (the host broadcaster and controlled by ACM, Alinghi's wholly owned management company) leaned on Kiwi commentators Martin Tasker and Peter Lester - ironically the same pair now employed on the Louis Vuitton gig - because they were supposedly too biased towards Team NZ and, the story went, put pressure on their jobs.
US broadcaster Garry McCord works for CBS but never covers the US Masters golf tournament. He was banned by Augusta National after talking one year about the greens being so slippery, he thought they had been "bikini-waxed". McCord now covers the rest of the PGA Tour but never Augusta.
In Australia, former test fast bowler Carl Rackemann was summarily dismissed from Kerry Packer's Channel Nine in the early days of their cricket coverage. Packer was well known for firing his commentators if he thought they were being too negative or not patriotic enough - a tone which sets even today standards for Australian cricket's main cheerleading squad. Okay, Packer was not the Australian Cricket Board although, such was Channel Nine's influence then, he might as well have been.
To my certain knowledge, a rugby writer on a major New Zealand newspaper was replaced partly because of pressure from a rugby coach. Even in this current regatta, there is a story doing the rounds that Harold Bennett, a much-respected man in New Zealand yachting circles, is playing no part in the Louis Vuitton because he is apparently the shot's eye to be named the next America's Cup regatta director if Alinghi stage the next multi-challenger event. The reason? Allegedly Alinghi's billionaire owner Ernesto Bertarelli thinks the present Louis Vuitton regatta director, Peter "Luigi" Reggio, (2007's America's Cup regatta director) was too close to Team NZ. You see? So it goes, and on it goes... This may not be the America's Cup but the politics are alive and well. They also reflect poorly on most people involved.
*Even Montgomery, positioned as the victim in all this, said he was being targeted because he was a critical analyst; that those who remained were mere "cheerleaders", never questioning the might of Team NZ. That is a bit of an insult to the likes of Lester, as he's been there and done it when it comes to yacht racing, not to mention Tasker and the other TVNZ commentator, John McBeth.
But that's what happens when the poisonous politics of the America's Cup wash over the decks of commonsense. Montgomery might have done well to simply stand on his dignity at that point. He might also, taking a longer-term view, have watched his back as he was perceived to be aligning himself with Butterworth/Alinghi.
Politically, it was bound to earn him enemies. Anyone perceived to have grown bigger than the sport he commentates upon can also be a target and Montgomery, defending himself last week, spoke openly about his "status" on the world stage.
Should Dalton have pushed for Montgomery to be excluded? No - sport should never try to choose its own critics. Alinghi should not have tried to bend America's Cup TV to its will and its spin either and any hint of influence, real or imagined, over a Kiwi broadcaster was inevitably going to have consequences.
But sport stopped being pure sport many years ago, when money first made its insidious entrance; when moneyed influences took broadcasting matters from black-and-white to multi-shaded grey; when commentators could be perceived to be cheerleaders; and when politics meant that wind shifts were not confined to a yachting course.
