While the youth football national teams had failed to spark in international competition so far this year, their minor sports counterparts have been struggling with issues of their own.
Badminton and Squash both failed to send their best prospects for continental junior competition last week.
The Badminton Under-15 team failed to travel to the Badminton Africa Junior Championship in Egypt due to logistical reasons.
Zambia’s no-show four-member Under-15 team included African boys’ champion Kalombo Mulenga who failed to travel to defend the title he won in 2014.
Meanwhile, the Zambia Squash Association also failed to send a five-member Under-20 team to the 2015 All-African Junior Championship that was hosted by Botswana over the weekend.
The sad thing about the squash team that was picked from Nkana Squash clubs’ successful junior programme is that the same team had just come back from a club-sponsored competition in Pretoria, South Africa just a fortnight earlier.
The Squash team travelled to South Africa courtesy of Mopani Copper Mines who offered the team a return trip on the company jet.
Our national teams, esp for sports in which we’re competitive, like squash, badminton and soccer, need government backing in any number of ways, financial/material (where possible) or on a “quid pro quo” basis where not, by helping the associations source funds in return for approriate concessions from GRZ. It not good enough to just give teams morale support and only showing up to share in the limelight whenever they win, you (we) reap what you sow…
You people why is it that everytime theres sports tournement government must sponsor where are the private companies like shoprite checkers,spar,picknpay and others including the suppliers why cant they sponsor