Not enough was done to get South Africans behind the national teams competing at the men's and women's Hockey World Cup tournaments.
Bianca Wood (right) of South Africa is challenged by Shilpi Dabas of India during a match at the Women’s Hockey World Cup in the Netherlands on Tuesday. Picture: Bas Czerwinski/ANP/Getty Images
So after a lot of noise was made about the players having to fund themselves, the national hockey teams are at the World Cup. Now what?
It’s all good and well that SA teams want to compete at the highest level, and yes, if they have qualified they deserve to be there.
But SA hockey has bigger problems than not being able to fund squads to attend World Cups.
Little is done to promote the sport, which was evident by the lack of interest in the build-up to the global men’s and women’s championships being held in Belgium and the Netherlands which started at the weekend.
And this lack of interest has resulted in local broadcasters not being willing to pay for the rights to televise it, perhaps because there is a fear that not enough people will want to watch.
Other sports also struggling
The national hockey federation has been struggling to find sufficient sponsorship for some time, to the extent that it hasn’t even been able to pay head coaches in recent years, and the sport is not alone. Many codes are in a similar boat.
The only reason the issue facing the SA hockey teams ahead of the World Cup made headlines is because one of the players shared a social media post revealing their plight and calling on the government for help, which resulted in Gayton McKenzie’s sports department providing R3 million for the players to get to Europe.
And yes, the criticism the government has faced for wasting money on unnecessary things, and not doing enough to assist with funding sports federations, is fair.
Promotion is key
But a lot more needs to be done to promote most sports, in order to increase interest from fans, which will ensure the mainstream media provides more coverage and sponsors show more interest.
Getting teams to World Cups is great, but it’s not going to solve the root of the problem, and federations need to take some responsibility for their own codes and start finding solutions to this seemingly never-ending issue.
The government should do more, but it can’t take all the blame.
