Beautiful game needs more colour

When you watch any professional football match in our country, you can’t help but notice the dearth of white and Indian players. That never used to be the case – and I think our country so needs that, if only to entrench the social cohesion that many people would like to see happen.

This afternoon, the Soweto derby – the biggest match in our football calendar, second only to the Cairo derby between Al Ahly and arch enemies Zamalek – is on at FNB Stadium.

When players of Orlando Pirates and bitter rivals Kaizer Chiefs make their way into the pitch, not a single face will be white or Indian. I mean, how is that?

It is quiet ironic that in the turbulent 1980s, into the 1990s, white and Indian players were very much part of the beautiful game. Some clubs such as Manning Rangers and Highlands Park were dominated by white players, who later played for black teams.

And, indeed, there were a number of Indian players plying their trade in the now defunct National Professional Soccer League: Deshi Bhaktawer, Gora Ebrahim and Goona Padayachee and Sulie Bhamjee, spring to mind.

I really would like to know what happened. Why are the white youngsters only seeing the grass as greener at the rugby fields?

And to think that South Africa’s solitary Africa Cup of Nations trophy was hoisted by a white Bafana Bafana captain in 1996. Who can forget the photograph of a beaming Neil Tovey, the shiny cup held high, next to none other than Nelson Mandela?

Rugby, which symbolised racial division during apartheid, has seen quite a transformation over the years, albeit with much resistance from racist bigots, who still saw the game as a preserve of whites. The same goes with cricket. It is great to see a representative team.

A while back, attending a Pirates match, my pals and I arrived about two hours early as we liked to do, to escape the traffic, pick nice seating, settle nicely and enjoy the miniature Buccaneers, who were the curtain-raisers.

There was this young player who stuck out like a sore thumb. He was the only white kid in the oversized black and white colours of Pirates. Michael Morton was his name, we found our later when he had graduated to the first team.

This is etched in my mind because we spoke about it back then. It was encouraging to see – even a single white kid – chasing the ball.