 |
| TOUGH START: Pirates new keeper Felipe Ovono |
I feel like a traitor. Just called my British-born son.
Asked him if I’m being fair. But some things HAVE to be said after a week of sporting
headlines which make tough reading for South Africans.
Given
that our sporting staples consist largely of a patriotic diet of
football, rugby and cricket, perhaps it’s time to think more broadly before
somebody accuses me of ignoring England’s current plight at Lord’s.
We
shouldn’t ignore the positives: a South African team surviving the rigours of
the Tour de France on debut, a couple of better athletics performances on the
Golden League track, the Davis Cup win against Ireland at Irene and the number
of millionaires with Seffeffriken accents doing well in The Open at St Andrews.
But
in the back of my mind there’s a little voice shouting: aaaaaargh. Which brings
me back to a sporting week which has been little short of embarrassing for
South African sport.
Look,
when Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs announced they were both off to
Swaziland for a pre-season tournament, it sounded quite exciting despite those
asking economic and political questions. The chances of a quick Soweto Derby do
decide the Kings Cup before the Carling Black Label Cup gimmick was
welcomed by many, even on the artificial surface at the Somhlolo Stadium.
When
the mighty AmaKhosi were stuck at 0-0 against Mbabane’s Swallows at half-time,
the first doubts began to stir. I tweeted about the possibility of our Soweto
giants both failing against Swaziland’s semi-professional hopefuls.
To
be honest, the idea of both Chiefs and Pirates failing on penalties, even on a
plastic pitch in a minor warm-up in the nation ranked 160 in the world, never
really impinged on my thinking. But it happened.
The
Buccaneers threw away a 1-0 lead, their new Equatorial Guinea goalkeeper Felipe
Ovono was beaten and they joined Chiefs as penalty shoot-out failures, leaving
us with Swallows against Royal Leopards in the final. As worrying as anything
that happened on the pitch was the South African commentators ignoring the
plight of our Soweto giants as a third game in three went to penalties and the
Swallows took the silverware.
Of
course, it’s not a disaster. Just a pre-season blip. Steve Komphela is no mug.
Eric Tinkler has proven his bouncebackability time and again.
But
while all this was happening, our mighty Springboks hit a speed bump too,
losing their opening Rugby Championship clash against Australia in Brisbane
24-20, throwing away a substantial lead with the World Cup looming and Victor
Matfield limping.
And
then of course, we have to consider those crushing defeats against Bangladesh
last week, which saw the Proteas, after their comfortable T20 success, lose the
ODI series in a pair of record-breakingly bad performances which resulted in
defeats by 7 wickets and 9 wickets.
Heyneke
Meyer, Russell Domingo and Shakes Mashaba are the big national bosses in the
big national sports. They all seem to prefer picking old reliables than bright
young things, though Kagiso Rabada was a shaft of cricketing sunlight in the
ODI disaster. None of them are expensive, imported coaches. All three were
cost-effective options after the sudden departure of their predecessors.
But
let's be frank: none of them inspire great confidence.
And
obviously the chances of all three of our big national teams recovering are
good. The Proteas begin their Test series against Bangladesh today, the
Springboks could come back and thump the All Blacks and Bafana could yet
recover from their opening 0-0 draw against Gambia and qualify for AFCON 2017
with good results against Mauritania and Cameroon.
But
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula is uncharacteristically quiet. One of his most
verbal critics, a former CNN sports anchor I’ve know for years, Graeme Joffe,
claims he had to leave the country after exposing corruption in numerous South
Africa sporting bodies.
He
says his life is in danger and has exiled himself in New York. That can’t be
right. Sport is all about opinions, and when things go badly on the field of
play, criticism is a MUST.
We
cannot simply ignore results and trends when things go badly. It’s been a very
bad week for South African sport. Let’s just be honest about it. And try to
make things better.
