adminSikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
TODAY at White City Stadium the curtain comes down on the 11th edition of the Zimbabwe National Youth Games. It has been a hectic seven days for the 10 provinces as they jostled to be the winners in the eight disciplines and obviously the big one.Harare has been so dominant in these games since their inception with the only time they were tamed being in 2004 when Masvingo ruthlessly defended their territory and came out tops.
In the next few hours we all shall know who has conquered this time around.
At their inception these games catered for all and sundry, it never mattered because the whole plot or objective of these games was to tap, nurture and indeed expose raw talent for obvious reasons. The games afford talented young persons to make full use of their talent and expose it to the world.
Winning is also part of the objective but it’s certainly not the main one.
However, of late winning seems to be the main and major objective as provinces choose to ignore the whole aim of these games and go for one of the objectives, winning.
What is the use of fielding a Highlanders reserve team player or a Division One player who is already identified and on track by an established club. Can we honestly say that young person is a product of the Youth Games when he eventually makes it big at national or international level?
How do you expose a talent that is already exposed? How do you identify talent that has already been identified?
By bringing a Black Mambas player to the Youth Games, Harare denied an unexposed but talented child an opportunity to parade his skills.
By fielding a Hwange Under-20 player who plays in Division One league Matabeleland North probably denied a Nkayi youngster the opportunity to realise his dream.
There is a need for the Sport and Recreation Commission to take a deliberate position on such “unfair labour practice” and say any athlete already in the mainstream developmental structures should not participate at these games.
The 2013 edition of the Games has revealed a sad and frightening trend by officials who have religiously embraced the winning at all costs mentality at the expense of developing and exposing untapped talent.
Yes, people talk of the likes of Guide Goddard, Denver Mukamba, Pretty Phiri among others as part of the legacy of the games but personally I don’t see it that way, no, these athletes passed through the Youth Games because at the time they competed, they were already in their various clubs’ developmental structures so we can’t then say they were discovered at these games.
For a player like Highlanders’ Ariel Sibanda and indeed that Matabeleland South exciting player Ndabezinhle Ndlovu who was spotted by the legendary Moses Chunga at the 2005 version of the games in Mutare and registered for Dynamos are the true examples of Youth Games products.
Let us not deny a talented athlete an opportunity.
During a group match in boys’ soccer featuring Bulawayo and Matabeleland North on Thursday, an interesting debate was raised when former Highlanders committee member Wisdom Mabhena queried why Bulawayo did not take in boys like Mgcini Sibanda of Bosso yet other provinces brought in very competitive players.
Former Bosso manager Amin Soma Phiri said while that could have been done, the move would certainly disadvantage a talented but unattached player.
There is certainly a need to come up with participation criteria otherwise what talent will we be exposing?
Legendary sport persons can be coaches or administrators during the games it’s fine but not somebody who has competed at regional or even international level to come down to the level of the Youth Games, no, no, no, it just can’t be.
As we begin the road to Masvingo 2014, I urge the authorities to seriously consider the argument otherwise we will soon totally lose the plot and the whole idea of these games although I strongly believe we have already lost the plot.
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