The World No.1

I haven't seen much comment but what does everyone think about the no show of Mr M at SPOTY? Of all nominees 3 were absent - Sir Chris Hoy - Training, Andy Murray - Training oh and Mr M on Hoilday! Bad PR and he should have made an appearance. Would not have happened if Chubby was still his Manager! US Management forgetting his roots?

Imagine the Ryder Cup team winning the Team prize and only two were there.

The SPOTY will not change its date because a 'star' is unavailable, so why shouldn't a 'star' be missing. The winner has been 'away' before, and will again, it's just the nature of the beast.

Justin Rose and Ian Poulter did the right thing for their sport! They knew they weren't going to win but still attended. In modern times with the money available now to people like Rory, there is no excuse to not attend an event which is highly regarded in the world of sport, in recent times I cannot remember the winner being away on 'Holiday' . Its only the nature of the beast if people and their Management choose it to be. If it hadnt been Olympic year and he had won, do we really think he still would have stayed away on Holiday? Ummmmm......

He's a busy man and can't be expected to be at every event, If he had prior commitments that coincided with SPOTY or any other event for that matter then that's just tuff, I hope he enjoyed his holiday, Why is it fans believe that they have a right to know everything about celebrities of any kind and they should have to be available to attend every event just because they want to see them and should allow the world to know all there private business, In Rory's case he plays golf and happens to be good at it, it is the fans choice to go and watch him play, he is not forcing people to go and watch him, as far as I am concerned he does'nt owe his fans anything and he should be free to choose when and were he appears.

I think he was right to stay away, I'm convinced it was decided beforehand who was going to win anyway. After all who gives a monkeys about cycling? Not even a sport really, just a mode of transport for those who cant afford a car. I tried 3 times to vote for him but didnt get through once - wasnt even allowed to register a vote.

Very blinkered responses on this one! As world No.1 of any sport you have to represent it to the best of your abilities, that comes with the territory! Not even bothering with a video link up is poor and would have been farbetter than 'he is away relaxing for the new season'!

All top sports people are busy, so no excuse again!

Apologies for getting it wrong about his management team, the fact they are British makes it even worse that he never bothered!

Jim - Cycling 'not even a sport just a mode of transport for those who cant afford a car' suggest you watch the Year in Yellow Documentary, the physical demands effort and committment required to be the top of the tree in Cycling are far more greater than those required in Golf, and the financial rewards are a lot less. The sports cannot be compared.

As far as I am concerned Rory is a Golfer, not a TV personality, he represents his sport by playing quality golf around the world, that is what has made him famous and the quality of his golf is what people pay to watch. New golfers will start to play the game because they see the tournaments on the tv, that is what will inspire new players not the SPOTY.

Darren,

A Golfer like Rory has to organise his schedule well in advance and if it is planned for him to be somewhere else at the same time as SPORTY, so be it. It also costs money for a TV crew to have a video link in place if in the off chance he wins (1 in 10). I am a golfer, love my football and I knew that the most likely winner would come from the Olympics, and guess what they almost cleaned up.

Are you saying that if you are World No1 and British you MUST attend SPOTY?

Because if so what will come next? "If the winner of the first prize doesn't attend the prize presentation, that prize will be given to the next placed person\s"

Yawn.... A TV crew was in Auz for Sir Chris Hoy, A TV crew was in Florida for Andy Murray and Usain Bolt also did a recording! By the way in case you didnt realise Sir - Repeat that - 'Sir' was live on a link! The world no.1 in some eyes can do no wrong, lets hope he remembers his actions when he is no longer on his perch! Everyone whoever they are our what they become, should never forget their roots or the importance of being honoured to be representing their sport as world No. 1!!!

Darren. I feel you are placing too much importance on the BBC SPOTY. No one enters it, it is just an award sponsored by the crappy bbc and given more than enough media coverage.

Golf is M's sport and that is what he needs to concentrate on, not worry whether or not he is going to get an award.

Darren, I am of course aware of the different levels of physical effort required between golf and cycling. In fact many years ago I used to cycle to school regularly and found it quite knackering. I think though for something to be called a sport it needs a level of skill to be involved rather than just extreme physical fitness. After all if any of us could achieve the required levels of fitness any of us could in theory become a champion cyclist, however I doubt if any of us could play football for England or become world number one golfer regardless of how much physical training we did.

My main point really was that I reckon that SPOTY was fixed. I do not believe that the country is full of people who are commited cycling fans. Surely I am not alone in finding a bunch of blokes cycling up the road unexciting? I know telly is not as good as it used to be but things must be worse than I thought if people are glued to their TV's watching that!

You are completely wrong, Jim, one only had to see the number of spectators lining the whole route of the cycling road events to see that support for this discipline is tremendous, at no charge I might add, unlike the exorbitant money asked to watch a golfer.

The winner, Bradley fully deserved the award and as the figures showed, he was supported by 30% of the voting numbers, which makes your comments completely invalid.

If you were to take the trouble to watch professional road racing then you would, I assume, quickly understand that each stage of a long and demanding race like Le Tour is very tactical.

Personally, cycling is one of the few sports that I am interested in watching because of the tactics employed within it. I never have any inclination to watch the professional golfers play because the modern game is nowhere near like the game that I was brought up on, yet I don't decry those who do find it interesting.

Whilst I support your views regarding cycling John, I am surprised at your disinclination to watch the pro's play. Didn't you watch the scintillating Ryder Cup golf served up at Medinah?

Michael, to me, coverage of golf is like watching paint dry. All we seem to see is the putting and whilst that is half the game, as we know, it is boring. We never seem to get close up view of the action in the swings of the very good shots that are played, so we can learn nothing. The action is only ever focused on the leader board. I am the same with football, played it, loved playing it, but hate watching it.

John, I disagree, when something is fixed in the way this has obviously been voting statistics released are unlikely to be the truth

As has been stated in the thread regarding the team event result the judges actually ignored the competitions terms and conditions when making the award to the Olympic team.

Reasons for this as stated in the other thread - " the BBC spent a lot of Taxpayers money on covering the Olympics so they were 'committed' to ensuring Team GB got the award and couldnt be seen to leave out the Para Olympians! The other thing to consider is who covers the Ryder Cup?"

The Olympics from start to finish has been propped up by massive amounts of spin doctoring in order to justify spending huge amounts of taxpayers money which many people believe should have been more usefully spent on more important services benefitting the country as a whole. These fixed awards are just another part of the spin process.

As for the massive support you say cycling receives, well let me put it this way, would these people have turned out to watch if they had had to pay? I myself may have gone along and had a look out of curiosity if the route had been near where I live and it had been free.

Whilst I am sure there is an element of tactics in cycling as there is in all types of racing there is no actual skill needed and at the end of the day barring tactical cock ups the fittest and fastest bloke usually wins.

I do not believe that my comments are invalid and have to say that when something is rotten which this farce has been shown to be by the team award it is usually rotten all the way through. Whilst of course I have no evidence at all to offer and would need inside knowledge to have it, my supsicions are that Mr Wiggins award was pre decided and all the phone voting was largely irrelevant. This could be why they didn't bother to set up enough phone lines to cope with the volume of calls.

Jim, I suppose I am really wasting my time discussing this with you, Wiggins won, not a surprise at all, as he had been quoted as favourite for a long long time because of his achievements in his chosen sport, which you seem to dismiss as something anyone could do.

Perhaps if the award was based on personality instead of achievement then we could get the right winner, but even then, I'm afraid that your Mr M would still not have won.

I agree that any form of phone voting and postal votes in normal elections are all prone to being rigged, and there is never a satisfactory based on this answer to any decision to award a trophy to a winner based on this.

The thing is that I am please Wiggo won as I know and understand what he achieved. A case could have been made for all of the finalists and I would not have got out of my pram because my choice did not win. That is plain sour grapes.

The Team, award was disgraceful simply because they were not a team that were the recipients of a trophy so should not have been included. I would have gone with the Ryder Cup team on this one.

The Olympic Team collected votes from all the 'different' sporting watchers while the Ryder Cup Team got their's from mostly golfers.

In the past when you filled in a voting form in the back of The Radio Times and sent it in, I even got votes as SPOTY.

If the award was actually about personality I think that probably Ian Poulter should have won it for his gutsy determined attitude that helped to inspire a team that looked dead and buried on to an unlilkely victory. Unfortunatly it isn't about personality and people without personalities such as Nigel Mansell have even won it.

Are we saying Mr M has a personality? Poulter I totally agree! Everyone has their views best to leave it at that just to making the point that being the World No.1 is not just about playing or taking part in your chosen sport. When Tiger was ruling the roost he was always on a Video link or recording a message. Enough said on that one. It is now clear that Mr M and his team will do what they want whatever. Even reducing the amount of events he will play now so people wont even see him play so much!

Darren,

Please explain your comment.

being the World No.1 is not just about playing or taking part in your chosen sport.

To be World No.1 in the golf world you need to collect points over a two year period FROM PLAYING IN TOURNAMENTS. Are you saying that to be No.1 you need to achieve things off the golf course?

In the US they have' Tiger bashers', who dislike his every move. You are coming across as a 'Rory basher'.

I for one don't want to see Rory 'burn out', I have seen it too many times over the years. Who remembers a guy called Jesus Lopez from Spain. He was being thought of as the up and coming star and played every week that he could. Two years and he was gone, a nervous wreck.