One moving story emerged last night on BBC TV as they did a short piece on South Africa’s Robben Island prisoners’ football league. Despite the racist authority’s initial refusal, the apartheid prisoners negotiated their rights to play the beautiful game in the stone quarry.

An internal football league was formed and the Makana Football Association was born with team names like ‘Hotspurs’, ‘Gunners’, ‘Rangers’ and ‘Ditshitshidi’.

Politicians and leading figures who played in MFA include  Minister of Defence ‘Terror’ Lekota, the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa Dikgang Moseneke, ANC President Jacob Zuma and business leader Tokyo Sexwale. Some prisoners, like Nelson Mandela, never played as they were kept in isolation. But they said he used to cheer them on from his prison cell window.

They made a film about it. Part 2 reveals how football helped the prisoners transcend their dire circumstances. So no moaning nor whining from today’s multi millionaire footballers as they play the game we all love.

[Part 2]

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Despite his massive disappointment and probable hounding by the media when he gets home, he answered all the questions thrown at him with dignity and honour and he applauded the English team on their victory several times. Even some of Ponting’s critics acknowledge how in post match interviews he always mentions the other team and usually in flattering term.

It was a pity that the interviewer, one of England’s great cricketers and captains, Mike Atherton, had to ask a cheap question about whether his captaincy would be under scrutiny. There’s so much more to ask. There are so many more questions that could engage an audience and extract insights into the mind of a great captain and insights into the wonders of this fantastic sport. Why aren’t they asked? If you’ve thoughts about the kinds of questions you’d like asked by sports interviewers, please send them in. I’ll collate them and eventually start asking interviewers to ask interesting questions, to help to enlighten us all.