IN TIME PAST, athletes and sportsmen joined or formed clubs as alumni associations of the alma mater. These clubs were supported invariably by patrons as employers of the members or by the members themselves who became progressive businessmen.
As a social unit the club maintained the discipline and esprit de corps of the old school or the neighbourhood which it developed.
This spirit of community and belonging pervaded the whole country participating in pursuit of excellence in achievement through friendly rivalry among sound minds in healthy bodies.
Private enterprise in sport has since been overtaken by the agenda of the politician class ostensibly to give support as improvement of social welfare on a national scale. The result has been the atrophy of private enterprise as the lifeblood of community development and the all but total dependence on the political administration for initiative.
The roots that stabilise and sustain the tree demand some return from its trunk and its branches and its leaves.
– LEONARD ST HILL
