World Cup 2010: Jim Beglin's ear infection hands ITV another setback

ITV's World Cup coverage suffered another setback when Clive Tyldesley was forced to commentate alone on the semi-final between Holland and Uruguay. His co-commentator, Jim Beglin, could not attend because of an inner-ear infection and yesterday it flared up leaving him feeling physically sick when he got out of bed. "Our people are in Johannesburg and the match was in Cape Town," ITV's head of sport, Niall Sloane, said. "It happened just so late in the day that we couldn't arrange a replacement." ITV's HD viewers missed Steven Gerrard's fourth-minute goal in England's opening game of the tournament due to an unscheduled ad break and the channel sacked the studio pundit Robbie Earle after his ticket allocation was used for an ambush marketing campaign for Bavaria beer.