Smaller sports shine despite financial hurdles

It’s tough fighting it out for recognition, sponsorships and viewership when it comes to the so-called smaller sports.

And when we say smaller sports we mean no disrespect.

We are just being brutally honest as football, rugby and cricket take the lion’s share of the money and attention.

Other sports like golf, athletics and swimming, when it comes to Olympic years, and tennis and mixed martial arts get some of the attention, but only when they are on the international stage.

The smaller sports are always up against it, with parents, athletes and private organisations having to fork out their own money just to get these teams and individuals to the events.

Domestically, they struggle, whereas most rugby, cricket and football teams don’t have this problem.

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With this in mind it was wonderful to see our national men’s hockey and women’s netball teams shining on the world stage.

The hockey team finished third at the Indoor World Cup in Croatia this weekend after beating Belgium 6-5 in the bronze medal match.

It was their highest finish in their history and Mustapha Cassiem – who scored 17 goals in Croatia – was named player of the tournament.

The women’s netball team narrowly lost 61-55 to England in the Nations Cup final in London.

They had beaten England earlier in the tournament and defeated Uganda and Malawi.

Let’s hope these teams only get more support and grow from here.

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