Playing the Game

FORMER Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser once speculated that if he could somehow knock politicians and criminals from the front pages of the nation’s newspapers and replace them with sports stars, he’d be running a contented country.

Naturally, he never succeeded, but with Christmas coming up it is an ideal time to put aside politics, scandals

and strife for a while and hail the exploits of our sports men and women in 1987.

Netball teams from New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea were placed first, sixth, eighth and 13th respectively in the World Netball Champion ships in Scotland a wonderful effort.

Another island team to venture to the northern hem isphere was the PNG Kumuls rugby league side, whose unconventional but effective skills warmed the hearts of spectators at the icy fields of the north of England and France. The Kumuls returned with some fine wins and a wealth of experience.

The Pacific Bowls Championship in Lae was a re sounding success, with lawn bowlers from the home team scoring major upsets over highly fancied bowlers from Australia, Canada and other world-rated bowls nations.

Fiji’s free-running rugby team trampled most sides it met in 1987, winning the three nations series against Tonga and Samoa with ease and going down to a crack New Zea land side in the final of the world rugby sevens final in Hong Kong. The controversial rebel rugby tour of South Africa and the subsequent suspension of those who took part will cost rugby some leading players, but new stars will inevitably rise to take their place.

Politics is doing its best to disrupt the South Pacific Games in New Caledonia this month and it is hard to disagree with some of the grievances that are keeping many top athletes at home. But the experts are confident the competition will be fierce and records smashed.

The problems of the Pacific are many and complex. A high proportion of them are of our own making, and it’s a fair comment that Pacific power-wielders could learn much from the dedication, determination and dignity of our sporting stars.