Investigative issue looks at dark side of South African sport

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From concerns about steroid abuse among schoolboy rugby players to the financial irregularities in South African cricket, the issue seeks to scrutinise what sports bodies and administrators would prefer to keep hidden.

Explaining the rationale, editor Ami Kapilevich says, "Sport is a reflection of society and, when things go wrong on the pitch, it is a worrying indictment of what is happening off it. This issue is humble contribution to a better South Africa and is dedicated to the heroes of the game everywhere."

Content unpacks sport underbelly

• Rugby: How can the EP Kings be delivering on its development promises, when the best township team in the Eastern Cape trains on a field of sand and stones?
  
• Cricket: Is financial scandal set to ruin South Africa's cricket administrators?
  
• Boxing: Are the skewed structures of South African boxing running the sport into the ground?
  
• Club rugby: What is being done (or not being done) to protect club referees from intimidation and violence on the rugby field?
  
• Schoolboy rugby: 57% of first team rugby players surveyed by the magazine are aware of other players using performance-enhancing drugs, and 34% named steroids as the drug of choice. The issue reveals what really goes on at the highest level of SA schoolboy rugby.
  
• Multisport: What is the truth about pain - and how does it aid sporting endeavour?