The Craven Week scare
Towards the end of the Craven Week there was talk of possible change. But it seems that the worst fears will not be realised.
Apparently the ministry of sport and the SA Olympic Sports Committee has decided that sport in South Africa should be organised on geopolitical lines, i.e. divided into nine provinces – Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Cape, North West, Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. This caused scares that Craven Week would change with the disappearance of rugby's traditional division into provinces, and people wondered at the possibility of the Blue Bulls and Golden Lions getting together as odd bedfellows.
It now appears that this will require restructuring of the national administration to be based on the nine provinces with some outsiders – which would still take a bit of Gauteng compromise, possibly by rotation, but would not effect something like Craven Week. The idea is that it would facilitate the distribution and administration of government funds.
In cricket this has not affected the running of the Khaya Majola Week – the successor to the Nuffield Week. It may change the way trials happen but is unlikely to prevent Craven Week going ahead as usual at Glenwood in Durban next year.
There is also the fear that this could be the thin edge of the elephant but the sports ministry must surely have greater concern for the thousands of schools where no sport is played rather than those where sport is played with enthusiasm, even if with an amount of government say.
