When Isa Guha, one of the faces of the BBC's Wimbledon coverage since Sue Barker's illustrious career came to the end, began her apology live on Australia’s Channel 9 the day after referring to Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah as ‘the MVP – Most Valuable Primate’, she said she had ‘used a word that can be interpreted in a number of different ways’.
Why this needless attempted humiliation of BBC Wimbledon host Isa Guha over Jasprit Bumrah 'primate' comment must end, writes Wisden Editor LAWRENCE BOOTH Ask the dictionary to define ‘primate’, and the first offering is ‘the chief bishop or archbishop of a province’.
And yet here we were, in the eye of a ‘race storm’ apparently designed to harvest clicks and stoke outrage rather than add gravitas to a subject that is both serious and distressing.
As live broadcasters are grimly aware, any phrase that invites bad-faith interpretations is best avoided – not least in the age of social-media pile-ons, and in an industry as back-biting as television.
‘A mammal of an order that includes the lemurs, bushbabies, tarsiers, marmosets, monkeys, apes, and humans.’.
