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 for their news coverage and yet, strangely, the stories on the smaller sports have nearly evaporated if not completely cancelled. So, it shows that the issue about limited space has always been a silly excuse.
I'm reminded of this matter by the fact that we are just two weeks from the start of the world softball championship for men.
The tournament organised under the auspices of the World Baseball & Softball Confederation will be staged in New Zealand from November 26 to December 4. Argentina are defending champions while the host New Zealand are seven-time previous champions.
Of urgent interest for South African sports followers is that our national team has qualified for the world showpiece and a 15-man squad has been named. A fascinating info about the squad is that its entire coaching staff is made up of tacticians from Limpopo. It's sweet and bitter bit of info about the province.
Sweet because Limpopo has always been crazy about softball. Granted, historically, the following for the ball game in Limpopo has not always cut across the province. But the passion for the game in Capricorn, Waterberg and Sekhukhune had been enough to carry the whole province. Even in the districts softball had not been big in the commununities, the game however had strong presence on the campuses of higher learning in those regions.
In fact, the ball game in Limpopo and neighbouring provinces of North West and Gauteng has had strong links with academia and campus life for decades. This was significantly strong during the 70s, 80s and 90s. However, after the turn of the 21st the game in Limpopo experienced dwindling fortunes, which included losing active support by both corporates and the state, represented in this instance by the Limpopo provincial government.
Today, to elaborate on thebitter reality, there are communities in the above mentioned regions where fierce baseball battles were fought in the 80s and 90s and today there's no mention of the sport anymore.
But as the world cup-bound squad shows, the game is still very much alive in Limpopo. All the game needs is the return of the love by the corporates and government, more decent media coverage including television. Perhaps, even on the side of the sport itself, exemplary administrators willing to go the extra mile will go a long to revive the fortunes of the sport.
It will be hard to convince the commercially-driven channels, but the public broadcaster is duty-bound to recognise the existence of softball and its activities, including the world cup next week.
In mainstream media, perhaps the game needs friends like yours truly to fancy any chances of having its affairs being published from time time.
In the meantime, may the sports followers and peace-loving people in our country and beyond rise and salute these fine gentlemen of the game - Lemo Raphasha, the SA team head coach, and his assistant coaches Thapelo Seshoka, Thabang Letsoalo and Nakedi Raphalo. And that's not all, as there's also Nakedi Mohlake, master pitching mentor.
All the five coaches have come through the ranks of then Great North Softball Association, the precursor to the current Limpopo Softball Association.
We hail these fine gentlemen of softball and their players, despite the odds being heavily stacked against South Africa in Auckland, New Zealand. To Raphasha and the boys, shred the form book to pieces and kick butt the best way you know. Vasbyt!
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