Proudly 'Sport' African!

From Chris Botha

Hi everyone

Well it is Friday afternoon and I just thought I would let you know that today I am one of the proudest South African sport supporters ever! I am sharing this with you hoping to get some positive spirit amongst my fellow South Africans.

South Africans we seem to focus on all the negative... The crime, the politics, the hatred, the bloody taxis on the road not to mention our Olympic team's horrible green crocs. Yes these issues are very, very real, but let's look at the positive stuff. I have chosen a few examples from my favourite sports.

CRICKET:

As I write this we have just finished beating the Australians 4-1 in the one day international series in Australia. The game was clinched with a magnificent 97 by Hashim Amla, an amazing quick-fire 60 by JP Duminy, a very steady 60 by AB de Villiers and 4 wickets (including Ponting) for new cap Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

A coloured boy, an Indian boy, a white boy and a black boy did the trick. We live in an amazing rainbow nation.

Before that, we beat the best test nation in the world 2-1 at home. The first time in 16 years that they lost at home.

Do you know that South Africa last lost a test series in 2006? (Against Sri Lanka in SL) - and since then beat England and Pakistan away, destroyed New Zealand and the Windies at home, and then drew a fantastic series with India in India. This is an accomplishment we should be truly proud of.

If I told you two years ago that SA cricket were going to lose players like Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp, Andre Nel, Jacques Rudolph, Lance Klusener and replace them with a 19 year old Wayne Parnell, a 24 year old JP Duminy and a captain called Johan Botha - would you have believed that they can become no 1? Surely not? Well they have.

What we should learn from this is to give players a chance before publicly and privately writing them off (myself included)...

RUGBY:

We are the Rugby World Cup champions until 2011 - say no more. We won the RWC with a very young side. We beat New Zealand in New Zealand for the first time in 23 years. We beat them in Dunedin for the first time EVER!

If we are talking backline - the 2007 winning backline - with the exception of Butch and Percy - will all still be playing in 2011, no matter where they play their provincial rugby.

To replace Butch and Percy we have Ruaan Pienaar and Frans Steyn - two of the most exciting rugby players EVER. Both proud Bloem Boys of course (and Sharks, I know J...).

In the pack we have Schalk, Juan, Spies, Kankowski, The Beast, Bismark, Andries Bekker, Bakkies, Victor (maybe) who can all still play in the 2011 RWC squad.  With the exception of one or two of them they will all still be under 30 with a RWC under the belt when 2011 comes around.

What a fantastic position to be in! Let's pray for a big tighthead to come through the system by then.

We have a Sevens rugby side that have won the first two tournaments on the circuit - beating Fiji, New Zealand, England, Australia. They have not yet lost a single game this season. NOT ONE...

The side is mostly made up of black players. In fact only 4 white players in a squad of 12. The side is captained by a fantastic black player called Mzwandile Stick. Their star is yet another Bloem boy - the future Bok captain - Robert Ebersohn. He was at school 12 months ago...

South Africa have junior rugby talent coming out the ears. I tell you that in the next 5 years names like Lionel Mapoe, Coenie Oosthuizen, Wilton Petersen, Nick Koster will be household names.

By the way - I reckon either the Bulls or more likely the Sharks will win the Super 14 this year. Mark my words.

SOCCER:

I don't know all that much about soccer, so won't blabber that much - short of that Bafana have won their last 5 matches in a row. Including some away games. I think we will go well in the Confed cup.

Here comes a bold prediction - WE WILL MAKE A QUARTER FINAL IN THE 2010 SOCCER WORLD CUP. I am positive that the mad man - Santana who cannot speak a word of English will make a decent soccer nation out of us yet.

OLYMPICS:

We tanked badly in 2008. Those green crocs - they gotta go. The administrators - they gotta go. However...

Some forget that at the 1996 Olympics - we won more gold medals than Great Britain; a great accomplishment for us (or a terrible indictment on GB). 12 years later Great Britain turned it around and won 19 Gold medals in Beijing and finished fourth on the medal table. Now if the pasty poms can do it - why can't we?

I hope to see us swing it around in 2020 when the Olympics will hopefully be hosted in Cape Town. Top 10 finish on the cards for us.
THE GREAT NEWS:

We have not yet scratched the surface. We have become a world class sporting nation by only using 10% of our population. There are countless kids out there who will become amazing sport stars yet. They just need the chance. We have been fighting at 10% strength since 94 and have won the African Cup of Nations, two Rugby World Cups and have become the number one cricket playing nation. In the words of Oom Barack (Obama) - YES WE CAN!

The day will come when we fight at 50% (at very least) and we will be unstoppable. Let's all believe it and who knows; maybe I'll send another mail like this in years to come, and we brag about so much more.

I know there are tons of bad stuff as well. Including Butana Kompela, The sports portfolio committee, and those terrible green crocs. But for now - lets bask in the glory of South African sport.

Have a great sporting weekend!

Chris Botha 
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