After the whole Andrew Strauss/Fatty Smith controversy, the ICC Champions Trophy is rapidly sinking from “poor sportsmanship” to “blatant cheating”:
It’s about time that post-match blogging evidence was taken into account.
Category: sport
Perfect timing
Huge props to England’s cricketers who have timed their demise to perfection so that I can get the end of their Jo’burg ODI out of the way and flick straight to channel 203 for Fiorentina v Liverpool. At one point, it looked as though they were going to allow New Zealand to finish a bit early, but a quick session of skittles (5/27) and everything will be over at 2045.
It would be silly if I didn’t take advantage of their superb organisational skills, so I’ll drop a quick quota photo onto here…
…like this one taken at Morgansvlei, near Tulbagh – and head for the TV.
Who do you support?
Following England’s magnificent ICC Champions Trophy victory over South Africa in Centuwiwon last night, they find themselves in the semi-finals while the hosts find themselves dumped out of the competition. And I find myself with a bucketload of upset Saffas all over my England-supporting back.
Which is actually a bit unfair.
I will (and do) support South Africa at any sporting occasion unless they are playing England. And I feel that that is a more than reasonable way of going about things. The argument that “if you’re going to live here, you must support South Africa full stop” just doesn’t cut it.
After all, if you were going overseas, would you suddenly stop supporting the Boks? Of course not.
And I have to take the rough with the smooth. And there’s been a lot of rough since I moved over here. The 2007 Rugby World Cup would be one notable bit of rough. But while I was unhappy that England lost, I was at least magnanimous in defeat. Mostly, anyway.
Flying the flag on my car this morning
My only gripe about SA sport and SA supporters is the hint of arrogance that has crept in since their recent successes in cricket and rugby. It’s not pleasant to see and it’s unfortunate. The Boks “Justice 4” campaign, when they tried to suggest that they were bigger than the game, is a good example. It detracts from achievements on the field and they were lucky to get away as lightly as they did.
The arrogance comes when teams and fans get used to winning. You see it in sport, you see it in politics, you see it in business.
It makes losing harder to take. But that’s still no excuse.
Last night, the world’s number one ODI team was wholly outplayed by a spirited England side. Beaten fair and square. Anyone claiming otherwise is nothing more than a sore loser.
Oh Christ – we beat the pigs!
Such were the unusual circumstances in which I found myself over the weekend and such were the demands of Sky TV for a Friday evening kick off that I’ve just had a “oh christ, I’ve left the iron on!” moment.
I can’t believe I didn’t blog about this earlier, but I see no harm in blogging about it now.
Not that there’s much to blog about. Thrilling game. We won, they didn’t.
Which is all as it should be.
Hope for Bafana yet
Ask any (non-whining) South African about the World Cup next year and they’ll tell you two things:
Firstly, it’s going to be brilliant, exciting, amazing; and secondly, Bafana Bafana don’t stand a chance. We’re talking cat in hell, snowball in hell, fishcake in… hell (?) stuff here. No chance. At all. Not even a little bit. Nil. Zero. Zilch.
You get my point. And that’s still one more than Bafana are going to manage*.
But we’re all singing the praises of the South Africa Homeless World Cup team this week, who are fresh back from Milan, trophy in hand! Fantastic stuff. That is, until you read the small print and discover that they won the trophy for finishing 16th.
It’s all enough to make you wonder if they didn’t just steal the trophy. In the traditional South African way. I’m not suggesting that they did nick it or anything, but getting a trophy for finishing 16th? It does sound a bit fishy.
You must forgive me, because I recognise that even being there representing their country was a special experience and an honour for those guys. And I can only salute the great positive work that NGO’s and charities do in organising these sorts of events. But, being a traditionalist at heart, I have to say first, second, third… fair enough. But a trophy for finishing 16th? Well, that devalues thing a little for me.
16th deserves more of a certificate and a pat on the back. A well done and thanks for turning up but there were another 15 teams who were better than you kind of thing. Not a trophy.
So South Africa didn’t win. They didn’t even come close. But there are those who can overlooked this minor detail if it brings in some nice publicity. ID leader Patricia de Lille for one:
I am so proud of our National Homeless Soccer Team, who persevered right until the end of the World Cup, beating Malawi in the final.
Poor deluded Patricia de Lille is still under the impression that her political party won the recent election and can’t understand why Jacob Zuma is claiming to be President.
Fortunately, for the purposes of accuracy in this article, reporter Harriet McLea helped de Lille out by adding the word “(match)” into the published quote at an appropriate point.
All a bit of a joke as far as the competition goes, then. But this surely offers some hope for Bafana Bafana in the real World Cup next year. After all, if you get a trophy just for finishing 16th, maybe they won’t be empty-handed at the end of the 2010 tournament.
* That’s enough now. Ed.