The rate at which world top football stars are migrating to China, I am starting to believe Sepp Blatter that maybe, just maybe football began in the communist state. The latest this week was former Chelsea and Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba who decided to part ways with the Yorkshire pudding for the Shenghai sushi. […]
Sport
Posted inNews/Politics, Sport
Race: Some thoughts about a discussion not had…
What’s in a word? Quite a lot, sometimes, and not a helluva lot other times. But who’s to say? Several years ago, one of my dearest of friends, AGRB, was accused of being a spy for the apartheid state. I knew that the accusation was baseless, so did most of our colleagues in the media. […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, Sport
Rugby and the nation: Tweeting our devastation
“Sympathies to the Wallabies,” tweets the comedian Brendan Jack. “After the tournament, they still have to go back to Australia.” It’s a sardonic comment on a morning which for many across South Africa has been an emotional rollercoaster. I’m very aware of this because I’ve watched my fellow citizens veer crazily from hope to despair […]
Posted inNews/Politics, Sport
What on earth could be more important than football?
I am in a hotel room with no en-suite shower or toilet. Did I say room? There isn’t enough space for my brightly coloured Shangaan bag between the single bed, three walls and door. So overnight I share my bed with my Shangaan bag. Try substituting a large bag for your teddy bear (or its […]
Posted inSport
Sports, a force of unity in SA
By Roxanne Rua One of the most noticeable aspects of South African culture I encountered when arriving here from abroad was the passion that so many people have for sports. Be it soccer, rugby, cricket or any number of amateur athletic pursuits, South Africans are loyal supporters, talented participants and indeed good sportsmen and women. […]
Posted inSport
Can we double the methylhexaneamine dose?
Drugs in sport are bad, unethical, unsporting, even dangerous to the athletes’ lives. But they are not as bad as losing to Scotland. They are the minnows of the six nations, the one team you can pretty much bank on beating. Well, that is if you’re a semi-decent team. But the Boks, at the moment, […]
Posted inSport
Why are Rugby League players so dumb?
I know it is not right to judge sportsmen by their intellect, or their ability to string a sentence together. You’d never do the reverse to an astrophysicist. You’d never say: Einstein, genius, but awful ball skills. That would be stupid. But with all that said, one would like to hope that our sports heroes […]
Posted inLifestyle, Sport
Charlie Sheen and Herschelle Gibbs walk into a bar
One is fresh from a two-hour book signing and the other just shagged three hookers senseless. Both need a drink. Barry Hilton is behind the bar. Gives them one look and pours five tequilas. When you’re Charlie Sheen and Herschelle Gibbs you don’t fuck around. When you’re Barry Hilton watching Charlie Sheen and Herschelle Gibbs […]
Posted inLifestyle, Sport
Sharks vs Province vs God
It’s 5.29pm, Saturday, October 30 2010. Willem de Waal indicates to his forwards he’s about to kick off when 600 000 locusts descend on Kings Park Stadium. They are of the big, green variety. The locusts blow in from the north and settle on the grandstand like a blanket. There’s mild panic amidst reassurance from the […]
Posted inSport
A letter to John Smit
Dear John It is strange to start a letter like that. It has the connotations of a break-up. That we are splitting up, parting ways. Well, in some ways we are. I’m going deep undercover in Australia. For the next while, I will be living like a bogan. I will be wearing the stubbies and […]
Posted inLifestyle, Sport
Getting over the ‘gees’
“Football teams are extraordinarily inventive in the ways they find to cause their supporters sorrow.” — Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby). This post is perhaps a month late but the truth is, this is not about the World Cup but what it has done to us as a society, a nation and individuals. I love football, […]
Posted inSport
‘They want our children to suffer’
By PK Lee From where Esther Goba sat watching two football teams clad in “HIV-POSITIVE” T-shirts competing in a football tournament in Limbe, Malawi, she wouldn’t strike you as someone who is at the frontlines of the life-or-death match against HIV/Aids. But Esther, aged 53, is doubly affected: she has been living with HIV for […]