JOHANNESBURG – Brad Binder always tries to make time for a braai. Although, being based in Spain, has made the quintessential South African activity extremely hard.
He revealed as much to the RedBull Bulletin last year, saying: “Hahaha, yeah, look we try to hook a braai here in Spain every now and then, but it’s not so easy. It’s not like home, that’s for sure.”
He seems an already likeable chap, a proud South African, someone who enjoys a spot of rugby, can talk about the cricket and debate whether Paul Pogba was worth R1.4bn and concede that N’Golo Kante is a better midfielder – much to Jose Mourinho’s dismay.
It is easy to forget that the Krugersdorp-born Binder is a world champion – there are just so many sporting distractions that impede on our collective consciousness.
Like, when will Safa announce a new Bafana coach (answer: eventually); will Springbok coach Allister Coetzee survive the year (answer: probably, but we won’t be happy about it); and when will the Mighty# come good and score some runs for the Proteas again (answer: watch out England); and, you know what, that’s okay.
Motorcycling is very niche. And unless you are in the know, you will know nothing.
It is the type of sport that has people screwing up their faces in easy detachment and nonchalantly shrugging their shoulders. On the South African scale of sport, it’s way down there, unless you live and breathe that lifestyle.
Here at Independent Media, it is the same. It is only on the odd occasion that MotoGP registers in The Star and its sister newspapers in Durban, Cape Town and Pretoria. There are several reasons for it, but the main one is that there is a barrage of sport every weekend that seems that much more important.
And that’s why Binder is so significant.
His heroics last year suddenly gave us South Africans someone to invest in. Just like that, seemingly out of nowhere, there was a person of interest to cheer on.
Every fortnight, come MotoGP race day, we here at The Star would diligently scour wire copy, looking for Binder’s name highlighted and if that did not suffice, dare to surf the interwebs in search for a titbit of information here, and a quote or two from there.
Because in the greater scheme of things, according to the big media agencies that service our international needs such as Reuters and AP, Binder’s exploits were minuscule compared to the achieved capers of the big boys Marc Márquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi in the MotoGP category.
They are wrong, of course. Because Binder’s success has become important to us as a country. He is a role model to the young and a new hero for a country desperately looking for a paragon of success in trying times.
His feats have opened a door into a sport many of us would be lukewarm to, because, quite simply, it is lekker to support a champion, especially one with the prodigious talent of Binder.
Qatar test done and dusted, got really unlucky with all the bad weather but each time out on… https://t.co/8kjFoKtpU9
— Brad Binder (@BradBinder_41) March 20, 2017
This weekend, the 2017 MotoGP season starts up with the Grand Prix of Qatar, and Binder, after his outstanding achievements last year, has also made the step up to Moto2 (the race starts at 6pm on Sunday on SS6) – that’s the old 250cc category if you’re a motorcycling dork like me and know nothing about anything of the sport.
Binder revealed late last year that he would be happy to remain in the category for a few seasons, saying: “I plan on making the move up to Moto2 (this) year and aim to do well there so that in the next couple of years, I’ll be up in the main race with the big boys.”
And that’s okay, too, because we will be watching, hoping and reporting, with pride, that he succeeds.
Here’s to seeing your name more often in this newspaper this year.
Good luck. We know you will be “Bradical”.