adminindividuals select themselves according to international performances accepted by the international governing bodies.
The problem arises in team competitions, such as soccer, cricket and rugby, among others, where a body called selectors is set up to advise the executive of the sport association on who they think should be included in the team.
The selection criteria is set out by the association and the selectors are required to base their choice on the record of individual performances of the players.
In Zimbabwe there has been a major problem of the fact that sport followed the racial outlook of politics where sport followed the segregation of the political system. In this system blacks were not allowed to compete at the same level with whites.
At independence in 1980, all racial segregation was abolished but the system did not immediately cater for blacks, who had no opportunity of learning some of the sports except, maybe, soccer and athletics.
As for such sports such as cricket, tennis, rugby and swimming, among others, there was no immediate integration except at the grassroots level, that is, at school level. Now 32 years after independence, major strides have been made to integrate our sport disciplines even at the national level.
There is no point in talking about racial composition of teams anymore. If the sport is dominated by one racial group, it is not because of the politics of racial discrimination but the lack of opportunity being given to the thousands of talented schoolchildren. Who is supposed to afford this opportunity to these children?
It is the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, through the Sports and Recreation Commission.
The latest directive to sports associations that selectors should be people that have represented Zimbabwe at the national level is unfortunate.
In tennis, as vice president of the sport association, I was elected to chair the selection committee of the Davis Cup team, although I had not played tennis at the national level. Yes, some members of the committee were more experienced than myself!
Anywhere, most of the players at that time were white except for one or two Asian players. The task was not difficult to come up with a credible team.
But, behind the scenes, there were many family rivalries which had nothing to do with race or politics. This is the nature of sport. Parents fight for their children to receive the glory of being chosen to represent the country or just to go on a national tour.
In the school system or even outside the school system, whoever makes it into a national team is awarded national colours. In the school system, it is quite a prestigious honour to wear a national colour blazer to school instead of an ordinary school uniform.
It does not matter whoever is voted onto the selection committee. I do not believe that one has to have been a national player at all except that a selector must have integrity and should always follow the competitions and rules set by each sport association.
In tennis the selectors submit their choices of the team to the executive that has the power to endorse or make variations to the team.
I do believe that is the case in many sport associations throughout the world.
In South Africa they have even dropped the requirement of a quota system where a certain number of players of colour should be included in the team.
Blacks are now making the team due to the fact that they are even better players than their white counterparts from their performances on the cricket field.
One must understand that the choice of those into the national teams may not be due to politics or racial discrimination but to so many factors that are considered. In England and France there has been disquiet from certain quarters about the increased number of black soccer players in the national teams.
If these players perform better at their clubs, there is no way the selectors or coaches can ignore them.
When the team does better at these international competitions, the nation basks in the success and forgets about the racial composition of the team.
The problem in Zimbabwe is that, no matter who is selected, black or white, the national teams have brought nothing to cheer about.
So, one may ask: Does it matter whether the selectors represented Zimbabwe or not if the team chosen does not perform well? The Sports and Recreation Commission should, instead, focus on spreading sports to every corner of Zimbabwe so that we can harness talent by sheer numbers of children taking part.
Selection of teams can never be the answer to under-performance. In some clubs and sport associations it is the firing of coaches and hiring new ones but to no avail. If those selected are not good enough, it is because of the system they come from rather than the composition of selectors or whether the players are black or white.
In countries that have achieved success in various sports such as Spain with its national soccer team that won the World Cup in South Africa, the European Cup recently, and lifted the Davis Cup in the World Group (tennis), it is due to that country’s system of sport development from the grassroots up to club level.
It is important to strengthen our domestic competitions where selectors will be able to come up with world-class performers to bring glory to the nation.
Online Reporter