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Eddie Chikamhi-Senior Sports Reporter
The chief executive officer of Team Zimbabwe-UK, Marshall Gore, said yesterday that their group, which is made up of UK-based Zimbabweans keen on ploughing back to their motherland, have identified infrastructure and grassroots development as part of their objectives for the next 10 years.
Team Zimbabwe-UK have been instrumental in championing the integration of diaspora players into the national football teams’ set up over the last few years. They are set to celebrate their 10th anniversary later this year.
“If you ask me what we have achieved in the last 10 years, I would tell you that we have achieved the integration of diaspora players into the national teams,” said Gore.
“So now the biggest challenge we have in the next 10 years is to focus on the development of sporting infrastructure in the country.
“We will be engaging companies that are involved in sports and inviting them to come here and develop. At the same time, we need to engage the key stakeholders here and assess where the deficit is and work from there.
“For example, there is a company called Power League in the UK. They do a lot of five-a-side and seven-a-side football pitches with floodlights.
“They will be very much suitable in the environment here, like in local communities in the ghettos. I think there is still viability even if someone has to pay a dollar to go and play football or train in the evening.
“So there is scope that we can attract that investment. So we have had some preliminary meetings with officials in the Ministry of Sport, mapping up the strategy.
“That’s what we are pretty much focusing on doing in the next 10 years and we feel that is another important part of sports development that we can play now.
“So we will be looking at engaging people in the UK that are keen to invest in sports infrastructure and bring them here. They could be Zimbabweans; they could be foreigners but we feel we need to play a part in driving the agenda of supporting the Government to develop sporting infrastructure by drumming up potential investors, including the former players.
“You will be surprised that we have been talking to people like (former Liverpool striker) Emile Heskey and (ex-Tottenham Hotspur defender) Ledley King and they have keen interest to also come and look at investing into sports businesses in this country,.
Goresaid it was key to provide infrastructure for grassroots development to enable young players to learn the basics in the right environment.
“The ultimate objective is to make sure that the local talent is developed to match what we have abroad. The diaspora is a small constituency and we do not need to do much there because the infrastructure is already there.
“All we are doing is just harvesting the talent. So now we feel it’s important that we can come up with a strategy where we can partner local stakeholders and support the development of sporting infrastructure. We believe there is a gap and the thrust is to bridge that gap.”
He also said Zimbabwe internationals Tendayi Darikwa and Alec Mudimu, who are part of the products of the Team Zimbabwe-UK initiative, in collaboration with Zimbabwe Foreign Legion, have demonstrated a desire to invest in grassroots development.
“Besides harvesting the diaspora football talent, we also want to move forward towards them playing a part towards development of grassroots football here in Zimbabwe.
“I think Tendayi (Darikwa) and Alec (Mudimu) are both quite keen to invest in some sports academies this side. I have also been having discussions with the Ministry (of Sports) on how best they can facilitate them to achieve what they want to do to give back to the country,” said Gore.
Team Zimbabwe-UK are set to celebrate their 10th anniversary later this year. The main celebrations will be held in the UK.
Gore said that the organisation will take stock of the successes in the last decade with the hope of inspiring Zimbabweans to take up voluntary activities for the good of the local sports landscape.
Online Reporter