Andrew
Sports Editor
ZIMBABWE Rugby Union has decided to tackle the cancer of age-cheating in sport head-on.
Domestic sport, particularly football and rugby, has over the years been tainted by allegations of age-cheating, including in schools.
ZRU vice president Losson Mtongwiza, however, said they were pulling all the stops to ensure that only deserving players competed in rugby’s age-group teams.
He made the revelations during a presentation to school sportsmasters that work closely with the ZRU in picking representative sides for the national Under-20 teams and for events such as the Craven Week.
“Since time immemorial, allegations of age-cheating in sport have been made and the burden of proof has always fallen on the accuser or plaintiff. The plaintiffs, without access to the national registry records or school records and even the sophisticated scientific methods of determining age using bone density MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), cannot prove their cases and the cancerous scourge of age-cheating has continued to eat away at the very fabric of sports ethics and morality,” said Mtongwiza.
“Age-cheating is particularly rampant at school level where most age-grade competitions are held and is especially noticeable when schools compete in various inter-school competitions and or derbies.”
Over the years, allegations of age-cheating in schools’ athletics, football and rugby have been pervasive, with some schools choosing to cancel or not fulfil any fixtures over the controversies, he said.
The scourge is said to have negatively impacted on the development of the sport.
“Among the most common ways in which age-cheating is practiced is allowing students talented in rugby to remain in a school repeatedly — repeating classes, or fielding players who recently completed their studies at the school, but have not yet moved on in life.
“One needs to attend some of the inter-schools matches to see that some of the players are older than they are given or purported to be,’’ Mtongwiza said.
ZRU, which is pushing for integrity over accolades, is deliberately targeting schools as a starting point.
The union has since developed a web-based tracking system — the ScrumIT programme — to help nab cheats.
The programme is an online player registration and rugby administration software.
It controls coaching management; player injury recording; disciplinary process and player sanction management; document and video management services; online real-time scoring with integrated competition logs; talent identification and squad management; and comprehensive reporting services.
Further, it manages union and club/school management; player registrations; fixture management; individual player statistics; player transfers (inter-club, inter-regional and international); and referee management and allocations.
The programme is in its second year of use in Zimbabwe.
ZRU believes that the scientific system will likely eliminate age-cheating.
Mtongwiza added: “We have registered possibly 40 to 50 percent of rugby players. Naturally, the success of the programme is determined by the integrity of the data processed. This means that it is incumbent upon school masters in charge of rugby, from colts to the school first teams, and to the club managers, academy administrators who are ethical and morally upright to provide us with accurate data backed by State-issued registry documents.’’
Those managing clubs, he said, help ensure that there are correct players in age-group teams like the Under-10, Under-12, Under-14, Under-17 and Under-19.
Until such a time when the country can procure and use scientific methods to check ages, “contingent and amenable methods” have to be used to keep rugby “free from cheats”, he said.
Online Reporter