B-METRO COMMENT: Sports admin key to sport development

The state of our sport in Zimbabwe is a cause of worry. There is no doubt that there is far too much room for improvement in administration across sporting disciplines. 

It is not just money that makes our sport tick; the money should flow into well oiled structures which are guided by clear goals and strategies, tempered with transparency and a longer term development focus.

Our tennis, cricket and soccer once provided so much cheer for the country. We do not seem to have any continuity in sports administration since cricket and soccer have in recent years been hit by boardroom problems that have manifested through poor on-field performances. 

It is quite worrying that since results have been elusive on the field of play the Government, that carries part of the funding burden is usually deemed to be interfering whenever it demands accountability from the associations superintending some of these sports disciplines.  

When it offers help in the form of funding, such kind of intervention is not deemed to be out of order but it becomes quite a different story when the Sport and Recreation Commission seeks to trace how the public funds were used.

Cricket and soccer have such powerful world bodies that frown upon so-called interference and it is our hope that their involvement with local associations will improve their handling of affairs. 

Surely, all the people want to witness is a progression of their sports. In just over a week Zimbabwe’s Mighty Warriors, the women’s senior football team, boycotted their match against Zambia in Harare and we are sure sanctions will follow. The men’s senior team also had travel arrangements that did not leave much room for training before the match and were beaten away by Somalia, the lowest ranked team on the continent.  

That the team had to sweat it out and secure qualification past Somalia in the final minute speaks volumes about the state of our football, and possibly about the state of football in Somalia.  

That a country that has no proper stadium due to years of war, and that plays home matches in a neighbouring country, could embarrass us in the manner they did, shows that there are a lot of things that they are doing right, which we are not. We can learn a lot from Somalia. Our Young Warriors also had an almost similar story of poor preparations and lost 5-0 on aggregate to South Africa at the weekend. We can also learn from our neighbours. 

If it is too far from home, our football authorities could take a leaf from our netball representatives, the Gems, and our women’s hockey team, our only team to win us an Olympic medal.  

They are riding high after performing greatly in a recent contest that saw their ranking improve from seventh to fourth on the continent, from 66th to 46th in the world.  

These teams that are doing well are operating in the same Zimbabwe, under the same economic environment with the difference being determination and organisational capacity to make things happen.

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