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Injustice in national team selections...

National teams really cheat themselves & sell themselves short at times by not selecting their best players. In the football world; 
• Benni McCarthy not playing for South Africa in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, 
• Clarence Seedorf not playing in his prime at several international tournaments for the Netherlands, 
• Ruud van Nistelrooy not being included for the 2010 FIFA World Cup 
• Romario not being selected for the 2002 FIFA World Cup
& a whole lot more exceptional players that were just not selected for their national teams. 

This self-inflicted injustice also happens in the basketball world with the most notable instances being the USA & Serbia. Serbia recently won bronze in the 2024 Olympics & silver in the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023. The Serbia team included some notable exclusions for both tournaments, the USA amended their selection faults & won gold at the 2024 Olympics but we can only wonder what could've happened if Serbia selected their full power team below. 


In South African basketball, we also seem to be letting go of a golden generation which could've done better than previous selections in Afrobasket, Olympic qualifiers & FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifications. We have guys that have played in the NBA (Summer League), European leagues & the Basketball Africa League that are not playing for the South African national basketball team. South Sudan is as guilty at omitting players from their national team. For both the 2024 Olympics & 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup - Bol Bol never featured. There are a few other South Sudanese athletes who represent Middle Eastern & even Australian teams but never feature for the South Sudanese national basketball team. 

South Africa did select their best performing team statistically in the 2010 FIFA World Cup but for some reason they failed to continue doing so after the 2010 FIFA World Cup, only amending some selection faults some time after 2021. The likes of Victor Letsoalo, Linda Mntambo, Thabo Cele, Lyle Matthysen, Lars Veldwyk etc. never seemed to get a chance in the Bafana Bafana team - not even as substitutions. We only saw glimpses of Cele's performances in the Japan Olympics in 2021 & not much since in national team competition from the man hailed as "the next Xavi".

National teams are seriously robbing themselves a chance at getting silverware by leaving their best players watching at home on television while the national team, the player watching at home could've been part of, continues in a tournament a potential talisman short. National teams do themselves a bigger injustice when not selecting their best players & ultimately, not even qualifying for international tournaments.
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