And up next in SA …

As so excellently written, Adam Wakefield has looked into 2011 and summed up for us all the poignant moments and prestigious awards handed out to very deserving recipients. It’s a wonderful article and I urge you to read it whilst on this site.

I look at our national sports as well as the provincial or more commonly named “franchise sport” and this is what I see for the up coming year.

Firstly, don’t worry about a recession in the scope of the world economy. There is so much money in sport right now and even with some justified withdrawals and some suspect non-renewals I think the money into sport will continue to flow. We have some new leaders in the realms of sport such as Robin Petersen at Safa and Stan Matthews in the PSL.

Danny Jordaan and Safa seem to mirror the Bafana Bafana’s Afcon Cup debacle with Jordaan’s attempt and then withdrawal from the race for CAF presidency — another tick in the incompetent and embarrassment column. I watched Jordaan strut at the recent sports indaba hosted by Sports and Recreation South Africa and besides all the commoners baying for his attention he seemed so passionately obsessed with his own importance.

I think Stan Matthews will do as much as he is allowed to do at the PSL. He has an appreciation for strategic implementation and he clearly can build winning products such as the SuperSport United football club — he will be in for a bumpy ride with all the jockeying and politicking in South African soccer. I don’t expect the media to make his life any easier but he will go for the low hanging fruit first and endear himself to the public. I predict success for Matthews, he seemingly knows no other outcome.

On the cricket front, I believe Gerald Majola deserves nothing less than a dismissal from the game as an administrator after the disgraceful bonus saga at Cricket South Africa. He and his cronies have brought the game in South Africa into disrepute to the extent that we now have competitions called the One Day Cup, formerly known as the MTN One Day Cup.

We have sponsors who simply say we are not getting involved until this mess is cleaned and Sascoc bleating that the sports ministry acted inappropriately. News flash, Tubby Reddy, it took Sascoc unacceptably long to act in any event and your NPO is accountable to SRSA. Stop moaning and do your job please.

The cricket field however looks inspiring, one positive thing with all the administrative bungling. Gary Kirsten and his team have been left to do their job and look what happens when that is the case. I am expecting some really exciting play from the Proteas.

Added to this a very successful youth campaign in 2011 should see our under 19 boys really prepared for the August showpiece in Australia. I have first-hand knowledge through my school sport radio show that the under 19 boys will be in high performance training from April 2012 till the under 19 World Cup.

Rugby in South Africa is waiting for its coach and I am very confident that Peter de Villiers will not be re-appointed. The assistant coaches will also be something of the past but we should not be too quick to discard Dick Muir and Gary Gold.

Who will be appointed? I am going to offer up three possibilities to cover myself I suppose — Nick Mallett, John Mitchell and Alistair Coetzee — I have placed in them in order of probability in my opinion. We also say hello to the new Rugby Championship — a poor tournament name in which Argentina will play as well.

I predict some changes coming out of the International Rugby Board, I see Sanzar really shaking things up there. Don’t expect too much from northern hemisphere international rugby, except the Heineken Cup which I think is a super competition. The Super XV is always a relishing prospect.

South African netball needs way more attention from Sascoc and SRSA to be the players they should be — this I believe has to be one of the singular most essential mistakes by SRSA — hopefully they see it sooner than later.

Hockey South Africa is achieving in spite of everyone ignoring their cause except Investec. Both the men’s and the women’s teams have done so well in my opinion, with the latter going to the final of the four nations tournament. If Sascoc ignore the men’s team for the Olympics using the International Hockey Federations as their guide it will be an absolutely shocking call in terms of the bigger picture of South African sport, but I doubt Sascoc will not let them go.

Let’s not omit the so called show piece of sporting ability, the Olympics 2012 to be hosted in London — an overrated event I believe. The South Africa team will not deliver on 12 gold medals, that’s my prediction, perhaps four to six is more realistic and we can up that expectation for 2016 to eight to 10 gold medals.

The sporting venues are looking acceptable for the event and I am sure London will all in all host a decent Olympics, but it is not something I really rate as an amazing event, although four-billion TV watchers may disagree with me. Have a great sporting 2012 and let’s hope that strategic ideals, implementation and realism supersedes greed and agendas. I can hope, can’t I?