A few days ago, I was reading a post-match interview with the captain of one of the teams in the English Premier league. When asked to comment on his team’s embarrassing loss to an underdog opposition, he simply stated: “We were awful!”
I will not risk identifying which team he represents, so as not to bring shame to any supporters reading this article. What I did find refreshing however, was his open admission of how badly his team had performed on the night.
No excuses, no trying to explain which of their key players were injured, no criticism of the officials. Simply, “we were awful”.
All of which made me wonder about how our various sporting captains respond when similar performance disasters occur. It made me ponder whether our various sporting bodies have issued an instruction for captains to downplay their teams’ failings, when being interviewed by the media.
After one of the few defeats that our Proteas ladies team experienced on their way the World Cup final, captain Laura Wolvaardt commented that it was “not the result they were hoping for”.
Really?
Imagine that!
It would be rather akin to a chef, whose latest dish has killed off all his patrons saying: “It wasn’t really the outcome that I was expecting.”
If Laura had spent more time reflecting on their failings, for example “our dropped catches were a cause of concern” or “we didn’t read the pitch correctly”, it would definitely have taken the sting out of the defeat, because they are honest admissions of the shortcomings on the day.
South Africans are passionate about their sports and do not enjoy losing; who does? In my opinion however, we would be more supportive of a losing cause if the teams, or their representatives, owned up to their failings and promised to try harder in future.
Is there a directive from the governing bodies that instruct the teams to never own up to their failings and rather to try and turn the discussion around?
“The boys really tried hard” and “we were in the game for a lot of the time” do nothing to cover for the failings that led to the loss.
I am a keen sports follower, and have always rallied behind a team who give everything and still lose to a stronger/better opponent who admit to their failings, rather than those teams who seem to explain their loss as someone else’s responsibility.
No, no, a thousand times no!
And what I find equally jarring is when a team is doing abysmally and the cameras cut to the rest of the team on the sidelines and/or the coaching staff and everyone is chilled and smiling, rather than looking concerned or embarrassed. This is especially noticeable in cricket, when our team is 12 for 4 and the players in the box can be seen making jokes or simply chilling with big smiles on their faces.
Come on people, you are getting paid big money to do your job but seem to have no shame when you do not do that job properly. Imagine a similar situation in the business environment: a large adverting agency loses a huge account and the creative team meet in the boardroom to chill and drink coffee. Hardly.
Further to my musings on sport, there is another issue which I find deeply concerning; one which I notice globally, and which certainly is encountered locally.
When a new young talent emerges from the sidelines to the centre stage, the public and the media are quick to hail them as “the next big thing”, even before they have had a chance to experience life in the big time.
One such example is that of tennis star Emma Raducanu of England. Rising seemingly out of nowhere, Raducanu, aged 19, defeated Leylah Fernandez at the US Open in what was the first all-teenage women’s singles final since the 1999 US Open. She won the title without dropping a set, the first woman to do so at the US Open since Serena Williams in 2014.
The tennis world went ballistic: the next champion had arrived, the new face of women’s tennis was here, etc., etc. She even appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Since then, her career has been dogged by a string of fitness issues and some disappointing results, which has confused both the public and the pundits alike.
Is it not a case of too much pressure, too soon, on such a young talent? Would she maybe be in a better place, had the public and the pundits given her a bit more time and space to grow and mature into someone who could become one of the greats? Given time she might still achieve great heights, but it has not been an easy journey thus far. And who is to blame for that?
In South Africa we have similar such stories.
Lhuan-dre Pretorius stepped into the cricket limelight as a teenage prodigy.
He was South Africa U19‘s leading run-scorer at the U19 World Cup, at the age of 18.
He made his T20 franchise debut for Paarl Royals in January 2025 in the 2025 SA20, and scored a career-best 97 on debut from 51 balls against Sunrisers Eastern Cape. The media could not stop expounding the merits of this new superstar.
In the following game he barely scored.
The media once again dedicated time and column space to pondering whether he was perhaps a one-trick pony?
Fortunately for him and for South African cricket, the media pulled back from him for a while and gave him some space. His career has subsequently blossomed. He does not succeed on every occasion, but that is to be expected – it is the case with even the best of the best. He needs to grow at his own pace, without the pressure of unfair media hype and public over-expectation.
Another similar example is that of Sacha Feinberg-Mgomezulu. Certainly, one of the most incredible rugby talents to emerge on the local rugby scene for many years. Yet, once again we must ask, are we the public and the media pushing him too hard, too soon, with our expectations of him?
He has dazzled the opposition and already broken records, with his point-scoring abilities, and is being championed by all. Quite rightly so.
But let us hope we do not make an Emma Raducanu out of him. He quite fairly deserves the admiration and praises he receives: but both we, as the public, and the media need to be cautious in not creating expectations of him that he could not be expected to achieve every time he runs on to the playing field, simply because we expect him to do so, and say as much!
When listening to coverage of the rugby games in which he participates, many of those giving commentary spend copious amounts of time praising him from the rafters and even, on occasions, trying to find a logical explanation when he slips up.
Yes, he does occasionally slip up.
Not because he is not a fantastic rugby talent, far from it, but it must be almost unimaginable to understand the pressure he must feel every time he runs onto the playing field.
Can we please just let him grow at his own pace and let him emerge into one of the greats of all time, which I am sure he will become? But do not expect it all to happen by next weekend. That, unfortunately is a common fault we as armchair supporters AND the informed media seem to make.
I recently was watching Sacha play in a URC game for the Stormers in Ireland. He had just made an error in kicking away the ball, rather than keeping possession. The two Irish commentators made, what I believe to be a fair and non- judgmental decision on his play.
They agreed that he was fast becoming one of the future superstars of rugby, but cautioned that he should be allowed, expected even, to make mistakes and learn by them at his own pace, rather than have the weight of expectation to never put a foot wrong, hanging over his head.
If we want these stars to glow brighter and brighter, we must give them the time and space to do so, rather than push them to the point at which they shine brightly in one day and then burnout as quickly.
Alan Milne
