Sky Sports presenter Alex Payne tries to form a level playing field when it comes to his family’s interest in sport
My father and I aren?t big into telephone chitchat. We may go several weeks without a catch up, but when I do call his opening words on the phone are normally, ?Hello my boy, shall I get your mother"? I don?t think it is a lack of love, it?s just old school. And yet, yesterday we nattered on the blower for half an hour about how good it was to see England beat Australia.
When Nelson Mandela said, ?Sport has the power to change the world? I think he had bigger dreams than dialling my old man. But sport does generate amazing emotions and bonds, and I can?t wait for my kids and I to scream in celebration about a wicket, goal or try that genuinely means something to us. However, if bats and balls spark conversations with Dad, they extinguish them with my wife. Several years ago I met Muhammad Ali, I can still remember her looking up from her magazine and greeting my excitement with, ?That?s nice.? Last weekend she sat next to a famous current England cricketer during lunch at Queen?s and is still totally oblivious to his national heroics. This month I?m off to interview Dan Carter in Cannes, she is only jealous of the sunshine. She could teach gravity a thing or two; it is hard for your feet to leave the floor in the face of such disinterest. And I love her all the more for it.
My work schedule sits in our diary for months but every weekend she stil...