Nash accused of stalling introduction of darts in schools

Last year some schools and provinces in the country included darts as part of their extra curricula activities with the inaugural tournament being held at Cheziya High School in Gokwe in the Midlands province.

 

However what was of worry was that a few schools turned up for this year’s annual Nash national Under-20 darts tournament which was meant to be held last week but had to be cancelled after Nash failed to release funds to finance the tournament.

A livid Nash head-in-charge of darts, Busiso Chakawa, who is headmaster at Gawa Secondary School in Gokwe said he was disappointed by the apparent lack of support from his colleagues.

“We were supposed to have our tournament last week but Nash said they had no money. I believe, however, that the problem starts at district and transcends to provincial level where Nash chairpersons look down upon darts. There is need to change this attitude,” said Chakawa in a telephone interview.

Chakawa said they were working flat out though to create interest in the sport by holding workshops for districts and provincial Nash chairpersons.

“We have since held one workshop where we invited the National Darts Association of Zimbabwe (Ndaz) leadership who gave expert advice and plans are under way to have another one soon,” said Chakawa.

The Nash head-in-charge of darts also said they will soon lobby for the inclusion of darts during the forthcoming Zimbabwe National Youth Games that will be held in Bulawayo next year.

He said by so doing pupils will develop an interest in the sport as they stood a chance of being selected for regional and continental tournaments such as the Zone Six and the All-Africa Games.

Ndaz national president Mernard Moyo who is also the Zone Six secretary-general is an advocate for the participation of juniors in the sport and have since made it almost mandatory for provinces to bring in junior teams during national tournaments like the Easter and Heroes Holidays Championships.

Last year Bulawayo Metropolitan Province Darts Association chairman Wayne Brandt promised to have a juniors’ league running at city schools and banned smoking during league games so as to accommodate the youngsters.