admin
The sporting fraternity has welcomed the appointment of Cde Andrew Langa as Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture. We believe the same goes for the arts and culture sector. For long the sporting fraternity has been lobbying for a full Ministry of Sports on its own. They argued that making it a Department under the Ministry of Education as was the case previously meant this crucial sector did not get the adequate attention it required in terms of financial and material support.
Perennial funding woes for some sports, particularly the hugely popular football, had become a nightmare for the athletes, coaches and administrators.
Cases of Zifa board president Cuthbert Dube having to dig deep into his personal purse to help the Zimbabwe senior national football team, the Warriors, are well documented.
In some instances Government funding and other material assistance was availed to the Warriors but most of the times at the eleventh hour. This tended to affect the performance of the players as their travel schedules to away fixtures were often chaotic, leaving them with inadequate time to acclimatise to the conditions of where they were playing.
At the same time the morale of the players and the technical team was also terribly affected such that by the time they run onto the field of play on match day, they would have been physically, emotionally and psychologically drained.
While some sports such as cricket do enjoy some measure of reasonable sponsorship from the local corporates and the International Cricket Council, a good number of sporting disciplines are crying out for funding. Recently there was a problem when our national rugby team wanted to travel for fixtures outside the country.
The preparations were disrupted after some players boycotted training over unpaid bonuses from previous assignments.
Tennis is no better because ever since the retirement of the Black brothers, we have struggled to make a mark in the Davis Cup tournament.
This is an international tournament that had put Zimbabwe on the world sporting map. Right now there are plenty of promising junior players but most of these rely on funding from their families. Those talented youngsters whose parents cannot afford air tickets or even bus fare in the case of matches played in neighbouring countries, end up failing to get the much needed exposure that comes with playing in regional tournaments.
Boxing and athletics have huge potential to give rise to world stars but again funding is weighing down athletes and administrators with the passion for the games.
Swimming is another sport that put Zimbabwe on the global sporting arena through the exploits of Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry. But how many schools do have swimming pools in our country where the future stars get an opportunity and facility to hone their skills?
Even in our communities how many swimming pools do we have where our children cannot only cool off during the heat of summer but also learn skills that can help them make a living?
In fact all sporting disciplines as well as the arts and culture sectors are great sources of employment for our youths. Already these sectors are employing thousands of people some of whom like Oliver Mtukudzi, Peter Ndlovu, Kirsty Coventry and others have become international brands.
The task for Minister Langa and his team at the Ministry is to work to unlock the value that the sporting, arts and culture sectors have for these disciplines to realise their full potential.
Online Reporter