B-Metro
Raymond Jaravaza
THE scourge of age cheating was once again brought to the fore with the expulsion of Dynamos from the recently ended Marvelous Nakamba Invitational Tournament and sports organisations are calling on more to be done to nip the menace in the bud.
Isaiah Mupfurutsa
The Dynamos Under-17 team was kicked out of the tournament at White City Stadium for fielding an over-aged player.
Dylan Gumbe, who was in the national Under-17 side for the 2017 Cosafa tournament, had been fielded in three group matches.
Dynamos were kicked out after the fraud was picked up.
Sports Leaders Institute of Zimbabwe (SLIZ) president Russell Mhiribidi said sports leaders must discard the “win at-all-costs” mentality as it was killing sports in the country.
Russell Mhiribidi
“Generally, people should shun these bad practices. Our problem as a people is that we want to do well in sport without doing sport well.
“We should always be professional because surely playing an over-aged player in an age-group tournament means we are denying the right players an opportunity to really develop,” said Mhiribidi.
He believes institutions such as Dynamos should be at the forefront of shunning unfair practices.
“I have heard about the accusations being pointed at Dynamos. If those allegations are true, then it’s very unfortunate. Dynamos are proven winners and they should not try and manipulate documents just to win a developmental tournament.
Dynamos
“If true, it means a lot of people are actually complicit in this whole thing,” he said.
His organisation holds autumn, winter and summer camps to try and raise awareness on the demerits of unfair practices, especially at junior level.
Dynamos chairman Isaiah Mupfurutsa said the club would institute internal disciplinary processes to get to the bottom of the age-cheating scandal.
