South Africa's foreign legion

Richard West

Johannesburg The South African press has not been slow to observe that the two principal Stars of the recent Test match in Brisbane Ire both local men: Allan Lamb, who plays si.°r England, and Kepler Wessels, who A43red a century in his first Test for mastrajia. Although Lamb is one of the ti anY South Africans to have made a spor- g Career in England or the United States, t essels is so far unique in having emigrated °Play in Australia. He is, furthermore, a pintessential South African: an Afrikaner 111.."1 Bloemfontein, and a devout Dutch viZ'orMed Christian. 'I like to thank God whgen I make runs,' he said on being asked T."Y he crossed himself when he made his th`st Century. 'He gave me an ability and I ii,4nk Him when I do well. I don't ask, I

saY thanks.'

At seems that Wessels was brought to tin'stralia not so much by divine interven- er,-,4 as by an offer to play in Kerry Packer's ercial cricket tournament. had aft3w,ri oP in the knowledge that my chances Playing Test cricket were virtually nil in thause of South Africa's political standing b e world. I became an Australian citizen eMigrating, and now I'm here to stay. ere's no thought of going back.' He has c"tried an Australian girl, another devout n,ristian, and together they runa in7sagent's business in Queensland, which vtight be described as Australia's Orange ince Stare — the Deep North, as it is called c0„,4clneY. The legendary Van der Merwe „t 4,ies a at ' "^e Wessels, from the Orange Free 0„—e, hence the joke of how he was asked tv" a television quiz programme: 'Where Jesus Christ born?' 'Bloemfontein . iliar°11g, the answer is Bethlehem."Ach,

knew it was somewhere in the Free

remi.he success of Wessels and Lamb cil;Incis South Africans that they remain -,;),ff from international cricket. There is bent a touring team from Sri Lanka "leY are not much good — or rather 'no Tirs' as they are called by the press here. th eY left Sri Lanka in much disgrace with wee,ir government; their matches in Durban Etie Most successfully boycotted by the In- rt,t2 community most of whom, as Hindus, hi-'esn.t the Buddhist ill-treatment of Hindus spo ri Lanka, as much as they do apartheid bore rt; the white crowds stayed away out of sro The race relations industry here den °LIM Africa has tried simultaneously to ib,;(3,1Ince the Sri Lankan players for com- N;suere but at the same time to excuse their the Performance. 'Most Sri Lankans are so`sole breadwinners for their families and rh "e live in hovels, not homes,' was one ex- 4lation for their slow long-hops.

The South Africans, who are aggressive sportsmen, would dearly love to take on Pakistan, or best of all the West Indians. It is widely believed here that South African Breweries, who brought out an English team last year, had managed to buy a West Indian team comprising all but a few of their best players, until the West Indian governments intervened. Certainly it would seem that, in spite of politics, money can i

purchase athletes here n South Africa, just as it did for KerrY Packer. Until then, South Africans can content themselves with the thought of their own unproven supremacy. The papers here have quoted a columnist in the London Daily Express that: 'Perhaps it is a good thing that apar- theid politics prohibits South Africa from competing in international cricket, because they could probably field a team that would wipe the smile off the face of the West In- dians.'

Connoisseurs of the esoteric subject of sport and South Africa much enjoyed the news last week that Hapoel, the sports wing of the Israeli Histradut General Federation of Labour, has told its members to boycott the forthcoming water polo contest against South Africa. This news is especially risible since Israel is one of South Africa's few friends in the outside world and also, at present, still more unpopular than South Africa among left and liberal opinion. Ap- parently Hapoel has also banned its members from playing against a visiting South African rugby team. This in turn provoked another threat from the South African Rugby Federation to subvert world rugby by doing, in effect, what Kerry Packer has done for cricket: make it com- mercial. Already rugby players are rather keen to show their boots on television, bearing the brand of a well-known com- pany: sponsorship could make rugby entire- ly commercial. And as South Africans ex- plain with glee, the introduction of a com- mercial motive into the playing of rugby would make it a very dangerous game, with forwards kicking a rival player half to death in the obscurity of a ruck.

Only in rugby have South African sport- smen not joined what is called the 'foreign legion' of going to live abroad like Kepler Wessels in cricket, Johan Kriek in tennis, Sydney Maree

in running, Sally Little in golf and Jonty Skinner in swimming — the last four of whom have taken United States citizenship. And no. w the heavyweight box- er Gerrie Coetzee is lost to South African boxing because of political pressure from the anti-apartheid agitation. The `Boksburg Bomber', or 'amiable powerhouse' as he is called in the Rand Daily Mail, has been forbidden by his pro moters to fight in South Africa 'because of the political capital our rivals would make out of such a venture'. He is already much incensed with his rival heavyweight Larry Holmes, an American negro, for statements recently made to KO magazine which Coetzee considers 'racist, unfair and ungentlemanly'. Apparently Holmes had refused to accept a challenge to fight, say- ing of Coetzee: 'That South African doesn't belong in the expletive world ratings... and he's still associating himself with South Africa. I don't like him. He wanted to shake my hand and I wouldn't. I want him to stay the hell away from me, un- til his country starts treating us fairly.'

Replying to this, the Boksburg Powerhouse lost a bit of his amiability: 'I'm prepared to donate my purse to any charity of Holmes's choice just to get a crack at the expletive. Take my word for it; once the dust has settled, one of us will be out of boxing for good, because he will never be the same again.' Coetzee does not consider taking American citizenship: 'I may not agree with everything happening in my country, but I'd be among the first to come back to defend it. One does not lightly cast aside one's heritage.' Like most South African sportsmen these days, Coetzee has had to acquire some diplomatic finesse, which may not come easily to a fighter.

However Coetzee, a dental mechanic when he is not bashing out teeth in the ring, appears to be popular with the US boxing press, including the influential KO magazine. He has certainly won more friends than a previous South African

heavyweight, Kallie Knoetze, a policeman who had once shot an African in a riot. This did not go down well in the United States. Oddly enough, Knoetse is once again in the news because of a scrap at a social evening held in a prison at Bethal, here in the Transvaal. It seems that some one spoke ill of Knoetze's skill as a boxer: Knoetze responded, whereupon a 135-kilogram butcher twitched Knoetze's moustache. Blows were then exchanged in what was a fairly typical charity night in the Transvaal. 'I'm a professional, there was not a scratch on me,' Knoetze said later.

Boxers are often more ferocious with words than with their fists, and it may be that negro Americans may after all come over here: if not to South Africa p.oper, then to Sun City, the capital of the newly created homeland of Bophuthatswana. A promoter, Angelo Dundee, has said of Holmes: 'I know Larry has said he won't fight Coetzee, in particular, because he's an Afrikaner. But 8 million dollars can change the mind of the most stubborn man.' And last weekend at Sun City, another American, white this time, collected a $300,000 prize for winning a golf match.

In golf, South Africa seems to be winning some skirmishes against her political enemies. Australia has been suspended from the World Amateur Golf Council for refusing to compete against South Africa in the world championship in September. The same may happen to Canada. At first I thought I had misread this news item in Tuesday's paper: surely it should be 'suspended for competing with South Africa'? But no: this is a boycott in reverse, aimed at those governments, like Australia's, which have forbidden sport- smen to play for political reasons.