Inside sport: Let’s support our national teams

The NEWS that Zimbabwe’s junior rugby and hockey teams are looking for funds to meet their financial requirements to compete in upcoming continental competitions does not bode well for the country’s reputation on the international front.

Zimbabwe’s Under-20 rugby team will defend their Rugby Africa U20 Barthes Trophy in Kenya in April, while the Under-21 men’s and women’s national teams scramble to find funding to take part in the Junior Africa Cup in Egypt from March 12. 19

How certain is it that our national teams will become beggars asking the public for donations so that they can represent a country that claims to have high sporting ambitions?

Let us not forget that these are the teams that all hockey and rugby fans and all Zimbabweans look forward to seeing the country represent the country with distinction on the international stage in the future, and yet they already face obstacles.

Zimbabwe Under-20 rugby team won last year’s edition of the continental competition and the players that make up the team are expected to form the backbone of the Sables squad that will qualify for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

It would be only the third time the Sables have qualified for the global showpiece, having competed in the 1987 and 1991 Finals.

The country’s junior hockey teams are also trying to rediscover the glory days when the country was once a force in international hockey. The country’s women’s team won a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Unfortunately, however, they were unable to secure much-needed support and the Hockey Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) is holding a benefit tournament at the Khumalo Hockey Stadium in Bulawayo.

HAZ are also holding a raffle competition while they have called for donations from companies and individuals to make the U21 team’s trip to Egypt a reality.

This apparently only happens in Zimbabwe, unlike other countries where the government, through federations such as the Sports and Recreation Commission, funds all national teams when they compete in international competitions such as the Africa Cup of Nations, World Cups and World Cup.

In England, for example, the offices of all national sports federations are housed in the same government building, with the athletics federation next to the swimming federation and the offices of the others coming one after the other.

These sports federations use the offices free of charge and, due to the proximity to one another, exchange views on how best to improve the federations they run.

But in Zimbabwe, some sports federations have no offices at all and operate from the trunk of the driver’s car, where important documents are also kept.

Zimbabwe once adopted the English model of offices in the National Sports Stadium, but that model was destroyed after the Department for Local Government and National Housing began charging very high rents.

This clearly shows how our government neglects sport, while at the same time those in charge expect excellence from our national teams when they play against teams from other countries.

If Zimbabwe is really serious about its sporting ambitions, then the government needs to move away from the do-it-yourself culture of sports federations.

What is surprising is that the government, through the Kirsty Coventry-led Department for Youth, Sport, Arts and Leisure, has on several occasions bailed out the A football team, sometimes offering huge bonuses, but neglected the other sports.

What the SRC and the Ministry of Sport need to understand is that football is not the only sporting discipline in the country and they also control over 50 sports federations including hockey and rugby who are crying out for help.

What Zimbabwean sport needs is for local sporting authorities to appeal to the government to fund all national teams or pay a percentage of the financial requirements if they qualify to play in major international competitions.

Surely they can start seeking government support for the junior rugby and hockey teams instead of the Warriors or Mighty Warriors, whose return to international football is unknown.

It is a fact that the Zimbabwean government has no money but it cannot be so poor that it does not support its own athletes to do their best against other nations.

There is nothing wrong with trying and the ball falls to the SRC and the Department of Sport court to try and see how the application for government financial support for sport can best go.

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