What a week it was. I can imagine now that everyone is aware that I am fervent supporter of football. Trying to cover sports other than football is a way to get out of my comfort zone, to me it is important.
It is another way to showcase my versatility and why I want to work in sports in the first place.
This week I had to cover one of the sports I least expected I would ever write about – darts.
I know of darts but that is about it – it is not the most popular sport in the Emirates, of course.
Needless to say, I chose to go for it and see what it is all about. The hype from all the English fans is something I knew about because darts is popular in the United Kingdom.
Even so, I had to do plenty of research about darts and some of the best players in the sport. I had heard about darts, but never got to opportunity to involve myself in the sport.
To be frank, I am very happy to have got this opportunity because I saw new things, I got to know more about the sport itself and the players as well.
My first job was to interview the players at the media day last Wednesday. One of them was James Wade, an English player going by the nickname “The Machine”, it sort of reminded me of WWE wrestling that everyone had their own special nickname.
Doing a one-on-one interview with one of the greatest dart players made me utterly nervous, but I held myself back and took a deep breath and just kept that straight smile with him. It is the only way to get through it.
Luckily, it went well, James is a great humble man, and very lively. The fact he was willing to talk just made things easier.
The next day, my brief was to write a colour piece on the first day of the event – the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters. And what an event it was, surprisingly I enjoyed the atmosphere.
The fans were all socialising and interacting with one another, I even dived in with many people and just got chatting with them about the event (and other irrelevant topics, since conversations do get carried away).
I now understand what the hype around darts is all about – it is a great social event.
I have to say I really would not mind going to the darts as a fan one day, it is not just about the game but about the fans.
I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the sport and finding out how much it means to darts lovers.
malshamsi@thenational.ae
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