BD SIGNPOST
SA will be denied the services of JP Duminy and Hashim Amla for the Proteas white-ball tour of Australia in November.
Former president Nelson Mandela once showed up at Shaun Bartlett’s wedding in Cape Town almost unannounced 21 years ago.
Bartlett was playing in the US at the time and had befriended one of Mandela’s granddaughters, a student who was also based in the land of the Star Spangled Banner.
The story goes she told Bartlett during one of their conversations that the statesman wanted to attend his wedding, but naturally the player didn’t believe her.
Few were aware that the iconic statesman would attend the nuptials and when he did turn up, his security detail, ambulances, bomb squad and all the other things you would expect to be part of a head of state’s entourage had to be hastily accommodated.
THE GOOD THING ABOUT BARTLETT IS HE IS NOT TRADING ON HIS FORMER GLORY AS A PLAYER AND HAS WORKED HIS SOCKS OFF TO EARN A PLACE ON THE BAFANA BENCH
Bartlett certainly has a unique connection to Mandela that few can claim, and perhaps the former Bafana Bafana striker still has a whiff of that old Madiba Magic in him if events at the weekend are anything to go by.
The 46-year-old joined the Bafana camp a few days ago and he is on the SA Football Association’s (Safa) payroll on a match-by-match basis.
But few would have predicted the immediate impact he has made since joining coach Stuart Baxter’s technical team last week.
The former Bafana striker has hit the ground running and if Baxter is to be believed, the new man is largely responsible for the 6-0 rout of hapless Seychelles in a 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier at FNB Stadium at the weekend.
Bafana strikers have been gun-shy in recent months but this was certainly not the case at the weekend as the national team romped to a record win at the 2010 World Cup Stadium.
The score flattered the visitors and Bafana could easily have reached double figures had they been more clinical.
Baxter credited the secondhighest Bafana scorer yet for his side’s sudden discovery of their scoring boots.
“Shaun had a conversation with all strikers in terms of their finishing, and when a top striker like Shaun gives you ideas, that helps,” Baxter was quoted as saying on the Safa website.
“Lebo Mothiba led the lines with his bullish play; the Alan Shearer-type of player. He bullied centrebacks and gave them no peace. I was pleased with Lebo, his general attitude and work rate.
“We want more of that, more of that passion, discipline and professionalism. How the players played was a structured SA way; the moving of the ball and everything.”
Bartlett played in SA, England, US and Switzerland and his 28 goals in 74 games in a Bafana shirt are second only to top scorer Benni McCarthy’s 31 in 80 outings.
The former Kaizer Chiefs striker was part of the triumphant 1996 Afconwinning squad and was a member of the 1998 and 2002 World Cup sides.
Bartlett is not trading on his former glory as a player and has worked his socks off to earn a place on the Bafana bench.
He has the credentials to back up his ambitions and completed his Uefa A licence four years ago.
He earned his dues in the national first division and led Golden Arrows to promotion to the premiership in his first season as a coach in 2015.
The keen sportsman, who has also played cricket, baseball and hockey, would later go on to coach University of Pretoria.
Baxter has made some curious decisions since his appointment as Bafana coach in 2017.
Electing to appoint his son Lee as his goalkeeper coach and adding the hugely polarising and unpopular Quinton Fortune to the national side’s technical team must surely rank as two of the most ill-advised. But while the Briton has made a few unpopular decisions, roping in Bartlett as one of his assistants is not one of them.
Ask Seychelles.