Patriotism in question
ATTENDED the Springboks and All Blacks match with much trepidation after the Boks were recently mauled 57-0 by the same opponents.
It was probably the most embarrassing performance by any of our national teams in any sport.
However, to their credit, the Boks bounced back and restored some pride in a classic encounter at Newlands.
In a seesaw battle, where neither team was able to dominate, the Kiwis held on for a pulsating 25-24 victory at a packed Newlands Stadium.
I experienced one of the strangest phenomena at any sporting event on Saturday.
While all away teams have some support from either travelling fans or expats, the Kiwis had a large local support base.
I would estimate 15% to 20% of the crowd supported the Kiwis and this was made up of local Capetonians.
I understand that this is a legacy from the apartheid days when the local community supported the All Blacks but considering we are now over 20 years into our democracy, I was disturbed by their antics.
Their passion and enthusiasm for the Kiwis would rival the support that Liverpool fans have for the Mighty Reds.
They even went as far as to boo the Boks, which I thought was uncalled for.
I think many years ago some fans in the Indian community would have backed the Indian cricket team when they played against the Proteas.
However, the reality is that we always want the Proteas to win but hope that the Indians put up a good fight.
It was an honour to have met 2007 World Cup winning captain and SA legend John Smit earlier in the day.
He mentioned that he felt awkward in Cape Town when he saw South Africans outwardly supporting the All Blacks.
Smit remained confident about the Boks, recalling some of his darker days in the green and gold and asked that we keep up the positive spirit.
OUR national teams were further boosted by a thumping victory for the Proteas against a hapless Bangladeshi team with Kagiso Rabada taking 10 wickets in the match to complement the four centuries scored by the SA batsmen in their first innings.
The Proteas wrapped up the series 2-0 with relative ease.
A confident Bafana Bafana earned a significant victory over Burkina Faso.
It was a much-improved team performance and the 3-1 victory still gives them a slim chance of qualifying for the world cup in Russia next year.
Although they are bottom of their group, if they beat Senegal home and away in their next two matches, they will win the group and qualify for Russia.
The final qualifying games are upon us and it seems inconceivable that Lionel Messi may miss the world cup with his Argentinian team outside the qualifying spots with one game to go.
A team blessed with the talents of Messi, Sergio Agüero and Angel Di Maria have struggled to make the automatic qualifying spots.
While Messi has excelled for Barcelona, he has not inspired his national team to win any global football tournament and I am sure in years to come his legacy will be questioned.
THE F1 season is all over bar the shouting.
It appears Ferrari is working hard to hand the championship to the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who has stepped up his performances over the past few months.
Reliability issues and bad luck have hampered Sebastian Vettel’s performance and it looks like Hamilton will stroll to his fourth championship title after he increased his lead over the German to 59 points with a victory in Japan. Vettel retired early in the race to hand the advantage to Hamilton and with four races to go, it’s unlikely that anybody will catch Hamilton.
WITH the English Premiership returning this weekend, all eyes will be on Anfield for the biggest clash of the season.
Visitors Manchester United will aim to continue their unbeaten start to the season, while arch-rivals Liverpool will try to rediscover their goal-scoring form.
It should be a humdinger.