Grant Shimmin in Wellington netball
She’s the biggest thing to happen to netball in New Zealand in years. In fact, it wouldn’t be stretching a point to say that without Irene van Dyk, the Silver Ferns might not have scored their two recent momentous victories over archrivals Australia.
The latest, a 55-40 trouncing of the world champions in Melbourne on Saturday, saw the towering goal shoot pot 44 of the Kiwi side’s goals, from just 50 shots, a success rate similar to that she enjoyed for the Wellington-based Capital Shakers in the recent Coca-Cola Cup domestic competition.
Now, though, it looks as though the 28-year-old former South African is caught in the middle of what could become an ugly disagreement over her participation at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
The problem is that by the time the Manchester event rolls around next year, she won’t have lived in New Zealand for the three years required to make her automatically available for the Kiwis in that tournament and New Zealand will need the green light from their South African counterparts.
Speaking from Australia, where the two-horse race ironically known as the Tri-Nations will wrap up this weekend, South African netball chief Ntambi Ravele said the departure of a star player like Van Dyk from a country where the sport was still developing to one where it was developed had been “hard to take”, apparently indicating that the granting of such permission was not a formality.
Van Dyk, in turn, has said that if she can’t play for New Zealand in Manchester, she won’t be playing, so there’s no question of a return to South African colours. She and her family are happily resettled in Wellington and there’s the small matter of the next world championship, in Jamaica in 2003, to consider.
It’s all a little reminiscent of Kenya’s refusal to allow 800m world champion Wilson Kipketer to run the 800m for Denmark, where he was living with his Danish wife, at the Atlanta Olympics. Their spiteful decision robbed the watching world of what could have been one of the best performances of those games. Hopefully South African netball will be bigger than that. If they really think they can get Van Dyk to play for them, they’re living in the past, and refusing to allow her participation would be downright selfish.
It would also play into Australian hands, with Van Dyk’s role in those two recent Kiwi victories drawing their fair share of sour grapes from “across the ditch”.
Van Dyk is often described as the number one in her position in the world. It’s not something she takes too seriously. Despite playing a major role in leading the Capital Shakers to the Coca-Cola Cup semis with a 91% shooting success rate recently, she said: “My team was working their butts off to get the ball to me and I just had to shoot it through the hoop.”
Nearly 18 months after leaving South Africa Van Dyk an intermediate school teacher in Upper Hutt, outside Wellington is enjoying her netball as much as ever and was looking forward to facing her former team-mates in the Tri-Nations. She may feel a little differently given the controversy, but that hasn’t stopped her showing that she is, indeed, the best there is.