Sport Matters

For the longest time the so-called Cinderella sports codes had been receiving the shorter end of the stick as far as media coverage is concerned. In the past, the argument used by newspapers to shut out the "minor" sports such as table tennis, volleyball, karate and judo, just to mention a few example, was that the space in the sports section was limited.  The editors would also claim that the heavyweights which enjoy commercial backing, such as football, rugby and cricket for example, carried too much punch power for flyweight codes. The sports editors were bluffing of course. Firstly, many of them simply did not have interest or understood the "smaller" sports, so they despised them. Secondly, the editors hobnobbed with the bossed of the big sports for opportunities of international travel and other favours, so they did their damnedest to cover those sports in the name of "that's what the readers" want. Today, newspapers have active online platforms

Quo Vadis Proteas... losing to the Netherland in a decider for a place in the semifinals of the T20 Cricket World Cup was damaging for South Africa. It was a weekend to forget for South Africa as far as international sport is concerned. First on the chopping block on Saturday were the rugby side the Springboks losing 19-16 to Ireland in Dublin. It was intense, high pressure game which the Boks could have won had their goalkicking was on point on the evening. There were two or three clumsy moments by the South Africans and such errors were bound to be punished as the Irish are not just a decent rugby but the No 1 Test team right now. There were times when the Springboks were never unflustered by big occasions far away from home and that's what the characteristic the team must retrace to command respect again.  To say 19-16 loss to the team rated top is no consolation because the current ranking does not make any team invincible. We should have won in Dublin. Sunday was double heartb

Anatoliy Trubin I was aware of Shakhtar Donetsk qualifying for the group stages of the current Uefa Champions League season. However, I expected the club from the Donbas region to finally throw in the towel and not show up, given the growing intensity of the war in their country.  However, after missing the club's earlier matches in Group F I finally got the chance to watch the "Miners" in action when they met Real Madrid in the Spanish capital on October 5. I was amazed by the youthful outlook of the team, fitness and competitive levels.  Champions Real sweat for their 2-1 win. It did not look like they were playing a team living in the shadow of a devastating war.  After it lost nearly its entire foreign legion who fled the war, the club had to find new ways to survive and honour its fixtures. But Shakhtar are made of a sterner stuff and are used to conflict and adversity more than most of the Ukraine. The club had been living and playing in exile since 2014 after Russi

Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana Earlier this week the suppoters of two of South Africa's biggest clubs, Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs, engaged in a duel of wits which trended on Twitter about who between the two clubs' top strikers was going to win the local league's Golden Boot.  While Sundowns followers vouched for their goalgetter Peter Shalulile, the Chiefs legion punted their new striker Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana.  Namibian international Shalulile is the hottest goalpoacher in the South African league for the past three season for the champion club Sundowns, while the lanky Burundian simply known as Caleb is still new in the league. The pair is locked at 6 goals apiece at the top of the league charts, after 9 matches for Shalulile and after 10 matches for Caleb. My response to the debate is that, both Shalulile and Caleb add value to their clubs and the league but at the end of the day - or the current season in the context of the scoring race - whoever wins between th

  The biggest enemy for South African clubs in African club competitions has, over the years, been the mindset of the players. South African players have a long-standing problem of denying themselves the opportunity of self-empowerment. The players tend to depend on their coaches to prepare them mentally about the conditions and any other info about their opponents and their countries. For time immemorial, going to war with no information about your foe has always been a suicidal mission. At least, the insanely brave and super strong can undertake such expeditions and expect to conquer at a high risk. SA players operating in the local Premiership are however not made like that. Ahead of international matches, they need thorough prep but for that to reach optimum levels, each player must take the trouble to find information about the opponents and their country. The players must share notes about what they found and discuss options about how to deal with they have discovered. Th

Africans have in the past decade or two become big consumers of the English Premier League, a passion they top up with significant spend on the merchandise of their favourite clubs. South Africans have also joined the fray in recent years, with a large portion of football banter on social media being about happenings in the EPL.  Personally I found a story of interest in English football this week through the crowing of Fulham as the champions of the English Football League Championship, the second-tier of the English game. I took interest in the matter given the impressive size of the Championship, and the historical reputation of the majority of the 24 clubs as previous EPL campaigners. These include really big names of English football in the yesteryear, such as Nottingham Forest who finished fourth, Blackburn Rovers (9th), Queens Park Rangers (12th) and Birmingham (20th).  Apart from the Championship being richer than some of premier leagues in Europe, it is also a highly competiti

The sacking of Kaitano Tembo as the SuperSport United head coach in the South African premier league has left a bitter taste in the mouth. Tembo had taken the reigns at the Pretoria-based club in 2018, taking over from Eric Tinkler who had a somewhat difficult short stint in charge. Things changed for the better when Tembo stepped in, despite United finishing sixth at the end of the season. The following season, 2019/20, he delivered the MTN8 cup. Tembo was enjoying a working understanding with his youthful squad as many of the players were developed under his watch in the club's relatively successful academy. That season he finished fifth in the league, same position as in 2020/21. His work in the past two seasons has been made difficult by him losing his key players, mainly to crosstown rich boys, Mamelodi Sundowns. The heaviest blow was when United's talisman Teboho Mokoena left for Sundowns in January this year, leaving Tembo and the team in serious limbo. Before him,

The demise of eight football fans in a stampede at Olembe Stadium on Monday has left another dark blot on the beautiful game and the Afcon tournament currently on in Cameroon.  With proper security measures in place the tragedy could have been avoided, that's what we many football think. Maybe not.  But one thing that's clear is that the tournament in Cameroon is proving to be among the best in the recent times despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. The smaller nations in the tournament have come to the party in a big way so much it is expected that one of them will reach the semifinals. That will come as a big boost to the African game after heroics by minnows such as Comoros and Malawi for instance before they fell in the last-16 round. The tragedy at Olembe nothwithstanding, I feel football-loving Africans need a football anecdote of global proportions to comfort their hearts.  Though the main stadium for the Afcon tournament is widely known as Olembe, it