It’s been an absolutely devastating week in our fight against the coronavirus pandemic in South Africa.
As many as 182 000 new cases have been confirmed in the last week. And that’s too many.
While many of those are people that we know – and some of them have sadly died – a number of them are figures in the sports world.
And the pandemic is now affecting professional sports tournaments.
Western Province’s Currie Cup clash with the Sharks has been cancelled, becoming the second game in the tournament to be called off.
In the PSL, games have been postponed.
And this is down to the fact that our sports professionals are failing to take the necessary precautions to prevent getting infected.
While it’s true that they may be taking every step to avoid it as they move in and out of their bio-bubbles, you can never be too careful, especially living with families at home.
Now I’m not blaming any of those who are self-isolating after exposure to a positive case or those who have caught the virus – I wish them a full and speedy recovery.
But be that as it may, at the beginning of this pandemic, I had hoped that sport could be a shining light in the battle of this once-in-a-century crisis.
With the help of medical science that helps pros reach the peak of human athletic potential, the sports world should have the best healthcare available.
So they should be setting an example for the rest of us.
But right now, it doesn’t look that way.
While I understand how mense can get moeg of the non-stop sanitising, remembering to wear a mask and the demoralising effect of being in bio bubbles, now is not the time to waver and give up.
It’s time to pull up your socks and go again.
If players need coaches to get into a routine to safely interact with the world, then it’s time for the clubs, unions, league and associations to do something about it.
It’s not a good look.
And since sports people are healthy and have fewer underlying problems than the rest of the population, they must be better at this for the sake of the people who support them and who they entertain.
It’s time for sport to look at itself and do better in this time.
I want to point out the terrible examples for pros being set in the Premier League.
In the past week, 80 new cases were confirmed as more and more players were caught going out during a stricter UK lockdown.
When sports people in a position of privilege most of us can only dream of – with healthcare, big salaries and a lifestyle with built-in exclusivity – then they should not be taking any of that for granted.
If it carries on this way, they might as well pack it all up and sukkel without work like the rest of us.