Murray Training In Miami Plans To Miss the BBC ‘s Awards

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 11th December 2013

Murray Training In Miami Plans To Miss the BBC 's Awards

epa03762521 Britain's Andy Murray during a training session for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 27 June 2013. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

The sporting awards season is in full swing but Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has compromised his chances of winning the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in his native Great Britain, held next Sunday, by deciding not to attend the ceremony and remain at his Miami training camp.

All around the world Murray’s rivals are collecting awards. Yesterday Juan Martin Del Potro became Sportsman of the Year award for the second time in Argentina, beating the likes of footballers Lionel Messi and Sergio ‘Kun’ Aguero to the Clarín de Oro, and recently Rafael Nadal attended the Marca awards to be named Spain’s greatest athlete of all time literally hours after flying back from South America.

Murray, currently rated a runaway 20-1 On favorite to win the award and placed second behind Tour De France and Olympic gold medal winning cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins a year ago, has formally delivered his apologies to the BBC. After several weeks of deliberating, he has finally decided losing two ways of training and undertaking two long-haul flights to take him to London and then travel 200 miles north to Sunday’s ceremony in Leeds is not conducive to his meticulously planned rehab from back surgery.

The awards are made from both postal and telephone voting and a large proportion is actually done on the night of the awards. Murray’s absence could be construed as a snub by many viewers and therefore result in them voting for rivals such as distance runner Mo Farah or America’s Cup winning sailor Sir Ben Ainslie.

Matt Gentry, the managing director of Murray’s newly founded company 77 who handles the world no.4’s publicity, has clearly tried to persuade his charge to attend. Rejuvenated efforts to secure the mega commercial deals that have been conspicuously absent since he banished the ghost of Fred Perry at Wimbledon in July, are again likely to be damaged.

• But Murray broke his thinking down into bullet points saying: “I’m currently recovering from back surgery in Miami

• I have training and rehab every day up until Christmas Day, when I leave for a tournament

• I’ll be on the road for 5 months in total, training on Christmas Day. I won’t spend it with my family of girlfriend

• I don’t want to do it, likewise, I’d like to be at Spoty, but these are the sacrifices I need to make in order to give myself the best chance at the Australian Open in January

• I have a great relationship with the BBC, from the recent documentary to my regular columns throughout the year and I don’t want this to be seen as a snub

I’m looking forward to linking up with the show live on the night and being part of it all.”

A BBC spokesperson said of Murray’s absence: “We are of course disappointed that Andy Murray cannot be in Leeds in person but are very much looking forward to him joining us live on the night via link-up.

“We’re looking forward to a fantastic night celebrating the 60th Sports Personality, with many former winners and some of the world’s biggest sport starts attending.”

If Murray does win the main award he will become the fifth man to receive it in absentia. The list includes three cricketers who were all on tour at the time: Jim Laker (1956), Ian Botham (1981) and Andrew Flintoff (2005).

Topics: 10sballs, Andy Murray, Atp, BBC Sports, Juan Martin Del Potro, Rafael Nadal, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Wimbledon

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barbaraplebani says:

December 11, 2013 at 9:41 am

RT @10sBalls_com: Murray Training In Miami Plans To Miss the BBC ‘s Awards : The sporting awards season is in full swin… http://t.co/aLE…