Give us a break

You would swear that the Springboks never won the World Cup, nor would you believe that the Proteas are preparing to take over as the number one ODI team in the world. Why? Because the game's administrators are too busy fighting amongst themselves to build on the success.

It will never cease to amaze me how the South African Rugby Union (Saru) has managed to balls up this year in such spectacular fashion. There has been no significant mention of the World Cup victory this year… none. There has been no mention of building the game in disadvantaged areas, not a peep about how we plan to build on the back of RWC success either.

What I have heard is a lot of mud-slinging between presidential hopefuls, questionable political alliances and an absurd amount of stalling on new Bok coach — although is he even the coach yet? — Peter de Villiers' contract. All in all it has been another fine start for the Saru bosses, who seem more intent on keeping their cushy jobs than actually doing them.

South African rugby was handed a golden opportunity to take the game to all the people of this country, but once again they dropped the ball. For all the talk of transforming rugby, nothing significant has been done by the game's administrators to change the current make-up of our teams, but you can bet whoever is President at the end of the year will blame everybody from the Bok coach (whoever that may be) to his secretary when the time comes to explain why we still only have one player of colour in the side.

Cricket South Africa (CSA), meanwhile, is not much better. While their decision to fulfill quotas is admirable, the way they have continued to go about it is not. Andre Nel seems to be the latest player to fall foul to some political engineering on behalf of CSA President Norman Arendse.

I am the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of Nel. His constant histrionics are tedious and out of place on a cricket pitch, but his record is not poor. 34 Tests with 119 wickets is not too shabby and it is questionable why he has been left out of the squad. He is now reportedly set to turn his back on SA cricket, and to be honest who can blame him?

It is also debatable that Charl Langeveldt is the best man to replace him anyway. His form has not been so magical that Nel should give way, and it is here that quotas become a major issue for all the players. If you had told me Monde Zondeki was making the trip to India I would not have questioned it for a second. Zondeki took 54 wickets in the SuperSport Series this season, including five 5-wicket hauls as well as one 10-wicket haul, at an average of 20.19, going for 2.93 runs an over.

With figures like that you would consider him a shoe-in for a Test spot or at the very least a place in the squad. But, of course, like Nel he will be staying at home when the Proteas leave for India.

It smacks of political infighting that Langeveldt has been selected and you have to feel for him. It is certainly not his doing, but after the brouhaha that erupted recently over the make-up of the squad for Bangladesh it seems Nel was dumped purely to appease Arendse, and to avoid another senseless war of words waged in the newspapers.

We all know how that turned out though don't we?

On a more positive note all aspirant runners will be able to lend a hand — or rather a foot — with the latest Puma initiative.

Aids orphans across the country will receive a welcome boost when runners in the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon sweat their support by wearing a pair of Puma socks on race day, Saturday 22 March.

Puma, the race's official technical sponsor, will donate R5 to the non-profit organisation Nurturing Orphans of Aids for Humanity (Noah), the race's designated charity, for every pair of Puma race socks sold.

Runners can buy a pair of the charity socks at the Puma Memorabilia shop at the Old Mutual Two Ocean's Marathon Expo, which runs during the race registration from 18 to 21 March at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town.

The HIV/Aids pandemic has resulted in parents dying before their children become adults, leaving South Africa with an estimated 1.7-million Aids orphans. It is these orphans and other vulnerable children who will benefit from work done by Noah across the country.

Visit www.noahorphans.org.za

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