morons

[realthog]

Here's what the Beeb says:

 * Chanderpaul scoops top ICC award *
Shivnarine Chanderpaul is named the International Cricket Council's Cricketer of the Year while England captain Charlotte Taylor wins the women's award.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/sport2/hi/cricket/7603843.stm

Chanderpaul well deserves his award . . . but, um, the captain of the England women's team isn't "Charlotte Taylor" but Charlotte Edwards, as any cricket fan past the acne stage must know. (England also has two excellent batswomen called Claire Taylor and Sarah Taylor, which is presumably why the Beeb numbskull got it wrong.)

How insulting is this?

I'd suggest: very.

If the acne-pocked dimwit had talked about Kevin Sidebottom or Ryan Pietersen (both of whom, names appropriately swapped, won ICC recognition today) he'd have been looking for another job around now. But it seems the Beeb doesn't give a toss about insulting one of the world's premier sportspeople by getting her name wrong should that person be a mere woman.

To put this in context:

Worldwide, cricket is one of the top few most popular sports. (I think it's #2, behind soccer, but I'm working from memory. Tennis and basketball and golf may be in there somewhere. Baseball and American football lag so far behind as to be out of sight.) The women's game is not nearly so prominent as the men's, even though it's generally recognized to be as skilful and exciting; the reason for the disparity is that organizations like the Beeb determined sometime in the 1920s or so to give women's cricket almost zero exposure.

Well, duh: you refuse a sport exposure and what happens?

Edwards has presided over an astonishing 13 one-day-international victories in a row (against, again from memory, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and India); that number would have been at least 15 had not weather caused a couple of matches to be abandoned. There've been some Test matches in there too; her team won the women's Ashes against strong Australian opposition last (northern hemisphere) winter. She is probably the most successful English sports captain of all time.

And some dork at the Beeb can't get her name right.

Yeah, wunnerful.