South African Hockey Association (Saha) president Dave Carr will request an urgent meeting with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) to clarify the SA men’s team selection for the Beijing Olympics.
This comes in the wake of the sports portfolio committee, chaired by Butana Komphela, insisting there be a 50-50 race representation in the squad of 16 players.
This apparently flies in the face of an agreement reached late last year between Saha and Sascoc that six players of colour out of a squad of 16 would be selected for both women’s and men’s teams.
Komphela’s committee are satisfied with the six players of colour representing the SA women’s team but are insisting that the men have eight, despite the team having been selected months ago.
Carr suggested the committee would have to take the bigger picture into account for the overall good of the game in South Africa.
”Most of hockey’s funding cones from government,” said Carr. ”The Beijing Olympics are not the be all and end all of SA hockey. After Beijing there will still be many more hockey activities.”
”After the meeting with Sascoc I will convene a meeting with the national selectors and the Saha executive to plan hockey’s way forward to resolve the situation we find ourselves in,” he said. – Sapa