Ron’s Thoughts …

Anyone who has ever read Ron’s Thoughts will surely know by now that I am passionate about sports. Most South Africans are.

The favourite among the black population is soccer while whites and coloureds prefer rugby and cricket.

Other sporting codes have a lesser degree of support. 

We have had a bad run for the past few months.

Our olympic team fared poorly. They only managed a single silver medal although they did set a few new African and South African records.

Our Bafana Bafana soccer team seldom wins anything.

Our Proteas cricket team after winning the 5-day test series against England by 2 games to 1 has now lost three consecutive games, and the series, in the 1-day format. 

Our Springbok rugby team, after winning the Webb Ellis world championship a mere 8-months ago, has now been bruised and beaten by Australia and New Zealand in the Tri-Nations series.  

But today they restored some pride by thrashing Australia 53-8 in their final game.

Well done “boytjies”, (common South African slang word pronounced “boy-keys” or “boy-cheese” and meaning “good fellows”)

We live to fight another day ! 

In the “Apartheid” era, pre-1994, South Africa and it’s sports men and women were boycotted and ostracized by the rest of the world.

We were starved of the best competition and resorted to paid rebel tours.

Post-1994, when a black government took over, many things have become worse. More incompetence, more corruption, more self-enrichment by an elite few, more widespread poverty, more crime, more brain-drain and an ever-diminishing delivery of services.

Only one thing has become better and that is our sporting world.

Yesterday I watched a cricket test match between South Africa and England and also the Olympics opening ceromony.

Today I have both of the above and also a rugby test match against Argentina and live coverage of a horse race on which I have a bet.

Well done to all the sporting bodies that make this possible, (and screw the politicians)

Nearly every day of my life I see some new record being broken, golf handicaps, cricket averages, frog-jumping competitions, etc.

 Today I witnessed a marvelous show on TV, the opening ceremony of the olympic games.

For me, there were four overriding impressions and thoughts.

1. It was extremely well organized and disciplined, the best that I have ever seen.

2. The many thousands of people doing the dancing formations were the best that I have ever seen,(why so many thousands worry me, but then, that is China)

3. The visual presentation was the best that I have ever seen, that shows that China is technologically up with the best.

4. How will some other country better this in 4-years time ?