Cross country surges on

In the mix. . . South African cross country champion Elroy Gelant.

IT WAS a record field on Saturday when the SA cross country trials were held at the Boksburg Stadium. Favourite and SA Cross Country champion Elroy Gelant duling won the men’s 12km race, just he did in 2011 trials before he went on to win the national title at the SA championships.

Unfortunately, this news remains unknown to most people in the country as the whole focus of the nation is in the ongoing 2013 Afcon tournament. There is nothing wrong with the focus being on the soccer tournament; it’s Africa’s major championship and it’s happening here in South Africa. The “minor” sports in South Africa always struggle for attention in mainstream media but a total blackout that was it last week ahead of the cross country trials is just not on.

Cross country is an essential component of athletics; literally the grassroots. The code is the bedrock of Kenya’s supremacy in middle distance running. The trainers and athletics authorities in that country will not back a career of someone who did not go through the grind of cross country. The reason is not hard to find: cross country running gives athletes all-round qualities, while it strengthens their minds and resolve to overcome obstacles. It has a humbling effect on the athletes, something which works in the favour of the Kenyans and Ethiopians who will kill you with a smile on the road and track.

South African athletics have long identified the importance of cross country but the simple run around method still battles to develop into a culture in this country. The big numbers in Boksburg on the weekend are encouraging but it is at very lower levels that we must see kids running during weekend organised events at their local parks or grounds.

Overall the picture is not entirely bleak for cross country running for South Africa as the senior men’s and junior men’s teams finished overall fifth and six in the previous IAAF world championships in Punta Umbria, Spain, in 2011. The SA women’s teams finished ninth (senior) and tenth (10^th), not a shabby effort at all.
This week Athletics SA is expected to announce the national team going to the Southern Region Championships, to be held on March 3 in Lesotho. From the team going to the world champs three weks later will be announced. Judging by spirited effort in Boksburg on the weekend, at altitude to boot, one can confidently hope for a better showing in Bydgoszcz, Poland. 

For the record, Kgosi Tsosane finished second followed by Desmond Mokgobu and Lucky Mohale in the senior men in Boksburg. This trio and winner Gelant are most likely to be joined by David Manja (5^th) and Lungisa Mdedelwa (6^th) in the team going to Lesotho.
Lebo Phalula won the senior women’s race (8km), ahead of fellow old campaigner Mapaseka Makhanya and
Nolene Conrad. Mpho Mabuza and Christine Kalmer would complete the team to southern region event. The rest of the squad will include the following:

Junior men (8km): Namakoe Nkhasi, Creel Chavalala and Rantso Mekopane
Junior women (6km): Nonhlanhla Dlamini, Glenrose Xaba and Annie Bothma

Omens augur well for Bafana

The way it was. . . One of the stars of 1996 Phil Masinga doing what he did best, celebrating a goal!

TWO days ahead of the 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations the mood in the host nation remains of despondency and dejection. Majority of South Africans still do not feel the tournament, not because they think is not worth supporting. The poor form of Bafana Bafana, the national team, is not inspiring.

Not because the current coach appointed six months ago, Gordon Igesund, is doing badly. Curiously, people have more faith in him than his players. The football fans in South Africa are shocked by the rapid decline of Bafana, which gained momentum after the 2000 Afcon which was co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria. South Africa finished third in that tournament, and what happened to the former winners at first attempt in 1996 afterwards is a storybook of disastrous planning and preparation.

Bafana are in the tournament courtesy of their host status, this after failing to qualify for the last two editions. The jury is out what would have happened if hosts were also obliged to qualify, just as defending champions are!

The team selected for the tournament starting on Saturday at the National Stadium has not scored in its last friendlies ahead of the tournament. This has added to the paralysis of the national psyche as the big kickoff approaches.

South Africans however have 10 reasons to cheer up; the omens are on our side. Comparisons between the conditions the victorious 1996 team faced are curiously similar with what it is in the plate for the class of 2013. Here goes:

·         In 1996 we qualified as hosts, just as 2013

·         Opening match is against debutants, Cape Verde; in 1996 it was Angola

·         Both Cape Verde and Angola are also Portuguese-speaking countries

·         We have Angola again in Group A, just as was the case in 1996

·         In 1996 Group A had one north African team, Algeria; this time it’s Morocco

·         In 1996 the opening match was at a sold-out FNB Stadium; the same stadium is sold out for Saturday

·         While South Africa was making its debut in 1996, this time the country ushers in new Afcon era as the tournament switches from even to odd numbers, to avoid clash with the World Cup

·         Victorious SA coach in 1996, Clive Barker, was Durban-born; so is Gordon Igesund for 2013

·         We have Lions in our group, the Atlas Lions (Morocco), just as in 1996 there were Indomitable Lions (Cameroon)

·         In Dec 1995, a month ahead of the tournament, Ivory Coast were the No. 1 ranked team in Africa. The Mighty Elephants are similarly No.1 as at Dec 2012.

With so many similarities between 1996 and 2013, the only thing missing is the high spirits on the part of South Africans. The team of 1996 was lifted by all – from toddlers to grannies. This time around some people do not even know we have such a big tournament on our shores, my mother included.

I don’t know about the soccer gods, but the omens are good. Victory over Cape Verde will send everybody out on the streets, as was the case in 1996. Then my mother will know it’s game on!

2013 Afcon's interesting numbers

Strong presence. . . Mali's Adama Coulibaly is one of six players sharing his surname in the 2013 Afcon.

NOW that the squads for the 16 teams which will be doing business in the 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations have been finalised, it is proper that interesting facts about the squads be closely scrutinised.

The excitement is beginning to rise as the teams arrive this week ahead of the big kickoff on January 19, now just five days away.

Here are some of the facts that emerged from 23-man squads of each national team:

• Like in the past editions, the South African, known as the Premier Soccer League, is providing the bulk of the players – 25. The breakdown is as follows: 1 in Ghana squad, 2 in Togo, 2 in Niger, 5 in Zambia and 15 in South African team, Bafana Bafana.
• Ethiopia has the highest number of players drawn from the team’s own national league – 20. (Cote d’Ivoire has the least – 1, third choice keeper Ali Badra Sangare from Academie Ivoire.)
• Africa has provided 7 coaches for the tournament; the highest number in many years. These are Gordon Igesund (South Africa), Rachid Taoussi (Morocco), Lucio Antunes (Cape Verde), James Kwesi Appiah (Ghana), Stephen Keshi (Nigeria), Sewnet Bishaw (Ethiopia), Sami Trabelsi (Tunisia)
• France retains the title of providing the bulk of foreign coaches – 5, namely Claude Le Roy (DR Congo), Patrice Carteron (Mali), Herve Renard (Zambia), Didier Six (Togo), Sabrir Lamouchi (Cote d’Ivoire)
• At 41, Lamouchi is the youngest coach at the tournament. The Lyon-born mentor is a former France international of Tunisian descent. Second youngest at 42 is Carteron
• The club with the highest player representation is TP Mazembe from Lubumbashi, DR Congo – 10. The breakdown is as follows: 4 in Congo (keeper Robert Kidiaba, defender Jean Kasusula, midfielders Deo Kanda, Tresor Mputu, striker Patou Kabangu); 6 in Zambia (defenders Stopila Sunzu, Hichani Himonde, Francis Kasonde, midfielders Nathan Sinkala, Rainford Kalaba, striker Jonas Sakuwaha)
• 6 – the surname with the highest representation, Coulibaly/Koulibaly. The breakdown is as follows: 4 in Mali and 2 in Burkina Faso. Traore is second best with 5 players in Mali team (1), Burkina Faso (2), Cote d’Ivoire (2). Interestingly, both surnames belong to Malian culture.
• 13 – the number of times the African coaches have won the Afcon in its past 25 editions; better by just one than foreign coaches 

Another point of interest, though not quantified with figures, is that there are more players based in Africa who will be in action in this tournament. Nigeria for example has selected six, something which was unheard of about the Super Eagles more than a decade ago.
Let the games begin!

Bring back Dakar Rally to Africa

The real thing. . . Moroccan Harite Gabari rides the Sahara dunes in his country. Gabari is competing in this year's Dakar Rally, in South America. In the past Morocco was one of the Dakar hosts in Africa.

It’s a misnomer that the Dakar Rally is taking place in South America. Not because there is anything wrong with that part of the world, it’s a beautiful place judging by the TV footage of the event. My gripe is that it is the fifth year now that the Dakar Rally has been taken away from Africa, its original home, for security reasons and that the countries it traversed, as well as the African Union, have been silent.

I trawled the internet looking for statements I might have missed in the news, about Africa expressing the tragedy of losing this iconic motorsport  event, and maybe a promise of fixing all that took the event away. There was nothing. Quiet, like the Sahara, the spiritual home of the Dakar Rally.

 At this rate, it is adequate to conclude that as far as African leaders are concerned the biggest motor rally  is no longer the continent’s business. What are they saying in Senegal, whose capital gave the championship its name? It is still Dakar Rally after all, with the logo still depicting the head of a Touareg man, the desert nomad whose stomping ground used to provide the thrills and spins for the vehicles and motorbikes that compete in this rally.

There’s also a clumsy argument from certain quarters that Africa does not need this event as it is dominated by European drivers. This is backward thinking to say the least, given the fact that Africa loses out on the Dakar at the time international sport is multi-billion dollar industry with direct economic spinoffs experienced by host countries.

How troublesome was is it to the people of Algeria, Morocco, Mauratania, Mali and Senegal that the race used to go through their countries, a positive international exposure that is now being enjoyed by Peru, Argentina and Chile? When coming to this issue, the African leadership stands accused of throwing the bathwater with the baby.

Africa’s daily experience should not be about wars, famine or other forms of strife. The reinstatement of the Dakar Rally in Africa will go a long way to put down a solid statement that Africa is a place to be. But we need visionary leadership to clinch that deal. Wake up AU!

Harite Gabari

It’s now or never for South African football

Lonely. . . A soccer fan cuts a lonely figure at the Free State during the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup. It can't get worse for the 2013 Afcon starting in two weeks' time.

EVEN after the Bafana Bafana squad was named earlier this week there is still no sense that the host nation for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations is excited about the tournament. This adds to the gloomy picture about the slow ticket sales in South Africa, which begs the question: “Do South Africans really want to host the Afcon?”

The tournament starts in 16 days from today, and still, the tickets bought for the kickoff match in the 94 000-seater FNB Stadium are still below 50 000. Ticket sales for other matches on the opening weekend do not even deserve a mention at this stage. Two factors relevant to South African psyche can be used to explain this apparent lack of interest in the tournament in this country.

Firstly, the tickets could have been going slowly because people were more concerned about affording their commitments for the festive season. These included travelling to far off countryside for holidays with the people back home. Money is tight and this period of the year people need it to pay for both life’s pleasures and necessities, such as school fees and other financial commitments.

It can therefore be hoped that football fans will start buying tickets once they determine how much they would still have after early January expenses had been taken care of. But time is running out and this anticipated late surge for tickets will be possible only if the desire to buy the tickets is really there among the South Africans.

The interest may be further boosted by how Bafana turn out in the two home friendly matches against Norway on January 8 (Cape Town) and Algeria on January 12 (Orlando). Performances near what is expected at Afcon level could spark mass interest in the tickets. But that could be relevant only to matches involving South Africa. What about the rest?

That brings us to the second factor, which is South African public’s notorious disregard for things African. The attitude extends to soccer, where the local fraternity - from fans, to media and administrators  - hold African football in disdain. Locals do not follow the game on the continent as they  don’t see the importance of reporting on events affecting the African game, while Safa and PSL officials also do not think highly of developments on the continent.

For example, most football fans do not know that as recently as December Al Ahly of Cairo represented Africa in the Fifa Club World Cup in Japan. Even when the Egyptian giants were crowned African champions for the record seventh time in November, when they edged Esperance of Tunis in the final, in South Africa that weekend the focus was on local issues.

It is this inward looking that has stifled South Africa’s progress in African football. To ignore the game on the continent is folly because no international success by an African team – club or national – will be realized without the continent. A team must be champion here before it can shine elsewhere in the world.

 Unlike 1996, when big stars like Abedi Pele played in front of empty stadiums in places like Port Elizabeth, the tournament’s numbers this time could be rescued by the large African immigrant community living in the country. The travelling fans will also come to the rescue, and more are expected to travel than it was the case in Angola (2010) and Gabon/Equatorial Guinea (2012). Already Zambians are said to be showing more interest in the tickets than the host nation. This is not because they are defending champions but because Zambians always travel far to support Chipolopoplo and this time the trip will be shorter.

Nigerians are great travelers as well, and they also have big numbers already in all major cities of South Africa. Ghana ironically begin their campaign in Port Elizabeth, just as they did in 1996, when they attracted just 8 000 fans against Cote d’Ivoire. That proved to be the biggest crowd that city attracted in 1996 as all other matches were extremely poorly attended, notably Algeria v Burkina Faso on January 24, which was watched by 180 people in the EPRU Stadium.

The crowds were no better in other centres, Durban included. In fact one match that attracted the biggest crowd other than those involving SA was at the Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein, where 9 000 saw Zambia drew 0-0 with Algeria on January 14. It was still poor attendance, and locals did not seem to care if Zambian legends such as Kalusha Bwalya, Kenneth Malitoli, Johnson Bwalya and Dennis Lota were in action in their town.

Has this attitude changed over the years? We’ll see when the 2013 Afcon starts in two weeks. But gut feeling says nothing has changed. The verdict: SA is its own worst enemy in African football. If there’s going to be a change of attitude then this is the time; it’s now or never.