With contenders like Penny Heyns, South Africa’s women are more likely to bring home Olympic medals than the men. Why, then, is women’s sport so under-funded? Grant Shimmin My Women’s Day began early and, appropriately, surrounded by women. Actually, make that future women. When my daughters, Caitlin (nearly four) and Bridget (just gone two) decided 5.10am was a good time to come bouncing into our bed, my wife took the smart option, going to their still-warm and now empty beds for a deserved lie-in. So there I was, my chances of a longer sleep blown, but afraid to move for fear of rousing the kids. On Women’s Day I found myself wondering how many other South Africans had been privileged to watch a senior national sports team go five matches unbeaten in the last couple of months, or win four in a row. I could guess. Including a healthy turn-out in Potchefstroom, about 5E000 people in total had seen our women’s hockey team win a series 4-0 against Spain, the eighth- ranked team in the world. Given that four of the games were at the Randburg Astro and many of the spectators had been regulars, that probably brought the total number of individuals who saw at least one game down to the low 3E000s. Not a great turn-out for a team ranked fifth in the world and on the verge of departure to the greatest sporting show on earth, the Olympics. Admittedly the series had been announced late and advertising had been sparse, but with Olympic writers warming up for Sydney, the series got a fair go in the press, so just what was the problem? Could it be, horror of horrors, that no-one really gives two hoots for women’s team sport? A couple of comments got me thinking. One was from a prominent woman player, a regular at provincial level, who loudly bemoaned the absence of male players from the matches. Another was from a man who’s had a fair bit of influence on the development of many of the top players in the national women’s side. “If the men had been playing here, you’d have had 4E000 people watching,” he observed as gate takings for one of the Randburg games were counted.
So what has the men’s team got that the women’s hasn’t? An ace goalscorer in Greg Nicol? What about Pietie Coetzee, who went into the series with 105 goals in 94 games? An inspirational leader in Craig Jackson? Take a look at Karen Roberts when you next get a chance. An outstanding goalkeeper in Brian Myburgh? Ask National Olympic Committee (Nocsa) president Sam Ramsamy about Inke van Wyk. He described her performance in the fourth game, won 1-0 by South Africa, as “formidable” and he was right. I could go on. So is it true? Do we really not care about our women’s teams? Because that certainly seems to be reflected not only in spectator turn-outs, but levels of sponsorship. And it’s not just in hockey. Netball, a sport with well over a million players, struggles for adequate sponsorship. Talking about the forthcoming national club championships in Pietersburg in a recent radio interview, new Netball South Africa chief executive Shane Gouldie couldn’t say how many teams would be taking part because there’s absolutely no funding for transport to the event.
The women’s hockey side right now is an ideal vehicle for a long-term major sponsor. Easi-HR, the current title sponsors (hence the nickname, Easi-Ntombis) are in for just a year with an option to renew. Hopefully they will – possibly based on what happens in Sydney next month. Contrast that with Australia, where the women’s side have a long-term major sponsorship from telecommunications giant Telstra, which has helped them develop the best record of any sports team in Australia, with the possible exception of their world-beating netball team. Like their counterparts in neighbouring New Zealand, both teams have a major media presence.
In a profile on legendary Hockeyroos coach Ric Charlesworth in Aussie magazine Inside Sport, the writer points out that when defender Jenny Morris “spent two years recovering from knee problems, Charlesworth made sure she remained a fully funded member of the squad”. In South Africa, having their hockey- related expenses paid is as fully funded as our team get. This year, substantial Nocsa funding and money from what the sport’s president, Clare Digby, calls “cash sponsors” (as opposed to equipment sponsors and suppliers) like South African Breweries, Nedbank, Spar and Easi-HR has ensured the considerable costs of preparing the team properly for Sydney have been met, but the sport only has money for “direct costs”, according to Digby. No question of any payments to players. Somehow, against that background, the women’s team have hauled themselves up to fifth in the world, a remarkable achievement.
With most sponsors’ cash flowing into our big three codes, perhaps it’s time they were offered tax incentives aimed specifically at rewarding investment in women’s team sport. At the end of the 1998 Commonwealth Games Roberts, who was seriously contemplating retirement from international hockey, said she’d like to become involved in promoting women’s sport because at that stage sport wasn’t a viable lifestyle option for women. I don’t know if my daughters will excel at sport, but when they grow up, I’d like them to have that lifestyle option. At the moment, it looks like I’ll have to move Down Under.