Sport in South Africa

Many sports have a passionate following in South Africa, although they remain largely divided on ethnic lines. The South African government is currently implementing a quota system in sport, according to which sport teams members have to be demographically representative. The most popular sports are cricket, rugby union, football and hockey.

South Africa was absent from international sport during the apartheid era due to sanctions, but started competing globally after voting to abolish sanctions

History

South Africa was banned from the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to the apartheid policies. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/18/newsid_3547000/3547872.stm 1964: South Africa banned from Olympics, BBC] ] . This ban effectively lasted until 1992. During this time, some sports people (like Zola Budd and Kepler Wessels) left for other countries in order to compete internationally. Some athletes continued their sports careers in South Africa in isolation, with some starts like women's 400 metres runner Myrtle Bothma running a world record time at the South African championships.Some sports teams toured South Africa as "Rebel Tours" and played the Springbok rugby and cricket teams in South Africa during the isolation period.

In 1977, Commonwealth Presidents and Prime Ministers agreed, as part of their support for the international campaign against apartheid, to discourage contact and competition between their sportsmen and sporting organisations, teams or individuals from South Africa. This was called the Gleneagles Agreement.

Cricket

South Africa is one of the leading cricket nations that play Test match cricket. Cricket was traditionally popular among English-speaking whites, and the Asian community, though the latter were not able to compete in top level South African cricket in the Apartheid era. Since the end of the Apartheid era a higher proportion of white players have come from Afrikaans-speaking backgrounds, and attempts have been made to increase the number of non-white players, in part through a quota system. In the current national team squad there are prominent non-white players in: Ashwell Prince, Hashim Amla (the first Muslim to play for South Africa), Herschelle Gibbs, Monde Zondeki, Loots Bosman, Charl Langeveldt and Makhaya Ntini. Cricket is one of the most popular sports in South Africa. It is the second most popular sport and is the only sport in South Africa to feature in the top two sports of all race groups.

The team has had both successes with batsman like Herschelle Gibbs who is one of the sport's most dominating batsmen, all rounders like Jacques Kallis, and Shaun Pollock, the former being one of the greatest all rounders of the game, and bowlers such as Makhaya Ntini who reached number 2 in the ICC Player Rankings in 2006. Dale Steyn is currently ranked as one of the best test bowlers and captain Graeme Smith is one of the most dominant left-handed batsmen in world cricket today. Mark Boucher (wicketkeeper) has the world record for the most number of dismissals for a wicketkeeper and continues playing in the team. Kevin Pietersen, who is white, left the country claiming that he was put at a disadvantage by positive discrimination, and within a few years became one of the world's top batsmen playing for the England cricket team. South Africa is one of the strongest teams and in 2006 in Johannesburg in what was the highest scoring 50 over ODI ever, South Africa led by Herschelle Gibb's 175 chased down Australia's mammoth and then world record score of 434-3. South Africa hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup an event that was disappointing to them as they lost against Sri Lanka in what happened to be in a farcical situation and were eliminated on homesoil. In the 2007 Cricket World Cup South Africa reached the semi-finals of the event but lost to Australia.

Rugby union

Rugby union is the most popular sports in South Africa, which is especially popular among Afrikaners.The Springboks hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, it was their first appearance at the World Cup. The defeat of the All Blacks in the final is remembered as one of the most famous South African sporting moments. The domestic league - the Currie Cup is also played annually, as well as the international Super 14.

After being tainted by associations with apartheid, the Springboks (or 'Boks') have sought to become part of the 'New South Africa', with President Nelson Mandela wearing the Springbok jersey, once only worn by whites, at the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

South Africa are the current World Champions after winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup

Golf

Golf in South Africa has a long and illustrious history, and South Africa is certainly one of the great golfing nations.Golf is easily the best individual sports event that South Africans participate in, with the quantity and quality of South African players being of the top order.

History of Golf in South AfricaThe most famous of South African golfers is of course, Gary Player who along with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus dominated world golf for so long in the 60's and 70's. In his trademark black outfits, Gary Player was one of the recognisable figures in the sport.

Current greats include major winners Ernie Els, the "Big Easy", Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman.British golfer Justin Rose is South African born, but chose to ply his trade for England

Tennis

South Africa used to be a country with good tennis players but this has all but died away with the new post-apartheid administration of the sport.The most recent tennis players who made it into the world top ten rankings are Wayne Ferreira and Amanda Coetzer.South Africa has only ever had one player winning a grand slam tournament, and that was Johan Kriek who won the Australian Open in 1981. He won again in 1982 but had acquired American citizenship and played as an American that year.South Africa's Kevin Curren was on the receiving end of Boris Becker's famous first win at Wimbledon as a 17 year old.Given South Africa's sunny climate and the abundant tennis courts in the country, it would be surprising if the current lack of top tennis players continued there for any length of time.

Traditional sports

Jukskei is a 200 year old folk sport developed and played in South Africa.

Rugby league

Rugby league in South Africa has a long and turbulent history, consisting of no less than three and possibly four different administrative boards, committee or interests over 40 odd years that attempted to establish the game of rugby league in South Africa. Neither, certainly the earlier attempts where very successful.

The first attempted expansion of the code into South Africa was primarily put together by the English and encouraged by the French for the purpose of expanding the game into new nations, that would inevitably bring more tests to the English and French shores, ensuring a lucrative future. At least, that was the plan; however it was not to be, the South African public did not take to the sport and the expansion plans where stopped prematurely causing a 3rd scheduled match in London to not be played.

The second attempted expansion was a strange double act in the 1960s consisting of two separate factions, known as the National Rugby League and South African Rugby League. Each fought for their own survival until the RLIF laid down the law that saw the NRL effectively shut down and its clubs moved to the SARL. All was looking good for SARL until a South African representative team toured Australia and where embarrassingly beaten, enough to discourage South African fans from supporting their national team and thus it never caught on.The 1990s brought forth a more committed band of entrepreneurs. The foundation left by the 1990s administration still lives on today, albeit a former shadow of its self.

The rugby league competition in South Africa is the Tom van Vollenhoven Cup.

Cycling

South Africa has a strong cycle race scene. The most notable cyclist is Robert Hunter who won a stage in the 2007 Tour de France. Robert Hunter rode that tour with Team Barloworld who had gained a wildcard entry to the Tour de France that year. Although Barloworld are based in the UK, the team is considered to be a South African team.

Other sports

South Africa has a number of disabled athletes, most notably Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee world record holder at 100, 200 and 400 metres; and swimmer Natalie du Toit, who became the first amputee to compete in swimming at the (able-bodied) Olympics in 2008. In triathlon Conrad Stoltz is a three time Xterra Triathlon world champion, Raynard Tissink is a multiple Ironman champion, Hendrick de Villiers is a ITU World Cup winner and Dan Hugo is an Xterra and multi-sport star.

Australian Rules Football

Australian rules football in South Africa is a fast growing team sport [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,503050328-1040220,00.html Learning to Play by Australian Rules] from Time Magazine] , having grown in participation by 159% between 2005-07.Fact|date=February 2008Since 1996, the sport has been growing quickly amongst indigenous communities,Fact|date=February 2008 beginning in the North West province and later spreading to Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape ProvinceFact|date=February 2008 through the work of development officers.South Africa's national team made history in 2007 by competing against Australia's best Under 17 players [ [http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php?story=20070418011543665 Aussie talent all class on African footy's big day] from worldfootynews.com] as well as defeating a touring Australian amateur senior team for the first time. [ [http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php?story=20070307015455321 Buffaloes over Convicts - match report] from worldfootynews.com] The first national championships were held in 2008, from which the Lions were selected and finished 3rd overall in the 2008 Australian Football International Cup.

Women's sport

Sport in South Africa is still largely seen (in the words of a former member of Women and Sport South Africa) as "the domain of men". In 1997, one writer described "massive gender inequalities in the sporting structures of the country, and a strong association between sport and masculinity" [ [http://www.thesportjournal.org/2005Journal/Vol8-No4/chappell.asp Race, Gender and Sport in Post-Apartheid South Africa, The Sports Journal] ] .

References