SPORT(S) THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAY

Adv Percy Sonn, president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa and a part time judge, (he was a partner of former Justice cabinet minister Dullah Omar in a law firm) banned all liquor at all matches of the World Cricket Cup played in South Africa early in 2003.
Then, during the match between India and the Netherlands in Paarl on February 12th, 2003, Sonn over indulged himself in red wine and, according to reports from guests sharing the same private suite, became gloriously drunk. He had to anchor himself on the rails of the suite, and started swearing in abusive and foul language, much to the embarassment of members of the English,  Welsh, and Dutch cricket boards, who were all present.
According to a report in the Johannesburg Afrikaans daily, Beeld, veteran racing driver Sarel van der Merwe had witnessed how Sonn "literally fell out of his pants" and staggered about among the Boland Park private suites.
A guest who was also present reported that Sonn embraced him, saying "Little brother, I am so drunk now I don't even fucking know where I am".
The following day Sonn said: "I am a person who likes my liquor.  If I used foul language, it was most probably suitable to the circumstances."
Security guards had to quietly assist Sonn to exit through a back door to sober up.
The UCBSA refused to reprimand Sonn for his excesses, saying that his lame apology - offered later - was adequate.

After his return from the Olympic Games 2000 in Sydney, Australia, Sammy Ramsamy, president of NOCSA (the National Olympic Committee of SA), replied as follows at a news conferenceafter demands for his resignation:

“I will not resign unless told to resign by my executives and not by fickle people who do not know what happened in Atlanta or those who don't understand competition”.

Again confusing Sydney with Atlanta (the site of the Olympic Games four years earlier), he later said:

“We are going to have a report back meeting immediately of all people at all levels who were in Atlanta”.

Demands for his resignation came after the dismal performance of the South African Olympics team in Sydney. Ramsamy refused to send the men’s hockey team (rated amongst the top 8 hockey teams world-wide, and winners of the 7th All Africa Games in Johannesburg in 1999) to Sydney, apparently because a disagreement with Ramsamy over playing a game of golf in Atlanta in 1996, which sealed the fate of  the team.

In stead, Ramsamy did send the 24 member men’s baseball team (the largest in the whole squad) to Sydney to become the laughing stock of the games, losing 16-0 in their first match against Cuba (without a hit), and whose match against Italy was shortened to seven innings and stopped prematurely under the “mercy rule”. The team suffered a 11-1 loss to the United States. In its three games, South Africa has been outscored 40-1 - a new Olympic record.

South Africa was placed 51st overall on the medal table, behind countries such as Mozambique, New Zealand and Azerbadjan.

Ramsamy admitted that he had been “a bit optimistic” when he spoke of a medal count of eight or possibly ten before the games.

How can a man who does not know his Sydney from his Atlanta be expected to distinguish between a hockey team and a baseball team?

“Something must be done about this dictatorial little man who treats NOCSA as a personal fiefdom before he does more harm to our sports”, commented the Sunday Times.

Ramsamy’s only claim to being a sporting person was a bruif stint as a lifesaver.
 
 

GETTING THERE

South-Africa's athletes who returned from the Olympic Games in Sydney was supposed to be given a ticker-tape parade through Johannesburg.
An open-top bus ferrying the "heroes" broke down en route from Johannesburg International Airport to the city centre. While they were twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the relief bus, the gleaming athletes heard that it, too, had broken down while coming to pick them up.
As if their day had not been harsh enough, the Olympians then had to contend with SA Olympic boss Sam Ramsamy happily declaring that he would not be resigning and was already preparing for the 2004, the 2008 and the 2012 Olympic Games.

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