Thought Leader

By Dhirshan Gobind Quotas in South African sport, conveniently disguised as “transformation”, have long been a contentious issue among administrators, politicians, players and most importantly fans. To tackle this burning issue, we need to go back to its roots. Only then can we deconstruct it, try to understand where it’s going, explain its impracticality and…

The Springbok, once abundant and fiercely protected, is now endangered. World Cup? With all that grey in Victor Matfield’s beard I thought the Springboks were off to play on the Senior Tour. I’m serious. It’s borderline embarrassing. We’re so laden with experience we’ll do well to keep it up for the first 80 minutes, let…

Have you noticed the rugby critics’ poetic descriptions of beefy rugby stars? Yes, those gladiators who are all about to knock the bejesus out of one other in the quest for victory in the new World Cup? Oh, those scholarly sports writers and their strained attempts to create an elegant portrait of yet another testosterone-laden…

As someone who, in the grand old liberal tradition (I’m not sure if there is anything grand or old in the liberal tradition, but, if I had to choose a tradition, that’s probably the one I’d chose in spite of it being utterly impractical and unfashionable) generally considers the rights of the individual as more…

It’s not that there’s no demand for association football — far from it. Both in the 80s, when I attended the South African College Schools (Sacs), and even more so now — when soccer is the breaktime pick-up game of choice — the round ball is evidently popular. Why then is Mzansi’s majority sport still…