Vusi Voetsek: Netball World Cup, Comrades planning in spotlight

For all the hype there is surrounding the tournament in the build-up, I just can’t shake the feeling that Netball South Africa have dropped the ball ahead of next month’s World Cup in Cape Town.

It has been 28 years since the Proteas earned a medal at the global spectacle, and what better way to break the drought than by stepping on the podium on home soil? But local officials seem to have slipped up.

As good as she is at what she does, Proteas head coach Norma Plummer is based in Melbourne, which makes it challenging for her to spend much time with the national team.

Plummer is going to be meeting up with the full SA squad only a couple of weeks before the tournament, and while she has already spent some time in camp with them this year, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be enough.

If Netball SA had shifted the Telkom Netball League forward this season, it would have opened the door for Plummer to spend more time with the Proteas in preparation for the tournament.

And while she insisted this week that the domestic league was ensuring players got game time ahead of the World Cup, she did admit more time in camp would have been beneficial.

It’s too late now, and the reality is that the splintered group of players are going to have limited time together to gel before the showpiece gets underway.

The only solace we have is that the Proteas are used to this. They never spend enough time together ahead of major events, and this needs to change, but they’ll just have to do what they can with what they have.

And the rest of us will have to hold thumbs that it will be enough.

Comrades

I happened to be in KZN last weekend for the 96th running of the Comrades Marathon and took the time out to watch some of the race.

While it remains a spectacular event, and hats off to all the runners, especially those ones who’re on the road for up to 11 and 12 hours, I can’t help but feel that the organisation of the event can be so much better in places.

Around the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg where this year’s race started, the streets were littered with rubbish, which is surely not the kind of thing you want overseas visitors seeing first-up of the great race. It’s the Ultimate Human Race, after all, so my plea to the organisers is to please try clean up a bit if you can.

And the toilets were even worse … it’s best to not say too much about them, but, my word, disgusting doesn’t describe it properly. Come on guys, I’m sure you can do better.

Also, at the finish, I noticed that after the runners had spent the better part of the whole day on the road, they’re treated like every other person and supporter, required to climb awful makeshift stairs with broken and buckled legs to get off the field at Kingsmead.

Come on, these men and women are heroes on Comrades day; they deserve to be treated as such!