Isolation provides a chance to strengthen our foundations

Previously locked out for all the wrong reasons, domestic sport in the Eighties was incredibly strong and well supported.

Now, as we brace for the latest in a series of recent shutdowns through no fault of our own, perhaps we can find some light in the darkness by utilising our isolation to develop our foundations once again.

With very little international sport on offer for South African fans due to political isolation before readmission in the early Nineties, spectators turned to domestic sport to get their weekly fix.

Packed stands supported a wide range of local sports, with events like the Currie Cup, domestic cricket championships and the Comrades Marathon thriving as South African fans were forced to look inwards.

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Since readmission, the return to inernational sport has understandably claimed most of the spotlight, however, and local events are often played in front of near-empty stands.

But as the world locks its borders, this time in an attempt to shut out a new Covid variant, it seems international isolation is once again a long-term issue we face, with no end in sight to the pandemic.

The cancellation of local events involving international teams and athletes is like a punch to the gut every time, and until there is some sort of long-term solution in place to fight the spread of the virus, we might do well to look inwards once more.

And this time we get the chance to do it together, with none of the internal isolation that marred domestic sport during the Apartheid era.

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Perhaps, rather than holding thumbs in the hope that we’ll get the opportunity to host teams and athletes from other countries, we should focus on supporting events which have long been left to feed from the scraps in a global sports industry which focusses almost exclusively on the highest echelons of international competition.

For now, concentrating on domestic sport seems like the way to go, and for the foreseeable future, it might be the best way to keep the local industry afloat, as was the case in the Eighties when South African sport was a giant within itself.

Forced once more to cut ourselves off due to the latest strain of Covid, we can now achieve the same success, and this time we can do it for all the right reasons.

Other countries might not want us right now, but if we look internally to strengthen SA sport, their loss could be our gain.