While others cry, table tennis is smiling

Mqondisi Dube | Monday February 27, 2023 16:00

Most of the relationships in sport also hinge on the availability of money. In the absence of ‘chelete’ sport is reduced to a pastime or recedes to amateur level. There is always a mismatch locally where administrators talk about elevating sport to a key player in the economy, including creating the much needed employment. However, the mismatch comes in the fact that there are no resources, particularly financial, to back up those ambitions. At the end of the day, the immaculate programmes do not bear fruit as there are no funds to finance them. You should ask yourself why someone of impeccable integrity like Thapelo Tsheole left Mochudi Centre Chiefs without elevating the team to the Premier League.

While administratively, Tsheole’s credentials are undoubted, he could not succeed in an environment of constant bickering and critically, a cash-less club. In brief, even the best cannot thrive when not backed with proper financial resources. My beloved Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp finds himself at wits end as he is constantly frustrated by the club owners' inability to back him financially. Back to the local shores, some clubs cannot even afford to camp due to lack of resources. Players are told; “let’s meet at the match venue at 3pm” and then you see them dropping off combis just before kick-off. That’s the sight of poverty and a demonstration of how difficult life is without money. To the topic of the day, while most codes are crying a bucketful over lack of sponsorship, table tennis is witnessing a rare boom. Sponsors are tripping over each other to be associated with the sport, with Capital Bank the latest reputable organisation to join the queue. I cannot exactly pin point the reason why table tennis has, all of a sudden, become such an attractive destination for sponsors. However, one thing that is clear is that there is good administration. Companies of repute will not want to be associated with a code that will drag their reputation in the mud. Let all codes, particularly the 'boxing' karate, take a leaf from table tennis. There is definitely something that table tennis is doing right.

Suspension of referees

Arguably the biggest football story of the last week was the suspension of seven match officials for failing to apply the laws of the game as well as, for late coming. While taking action should be non-negotiable, there is need to eliminate any suspicions that there was swift application of the law because the officials had erred against the Botswana Football League chairperson’s team. Such concerns will naturally bring under scrutiny, the arrangement where the chairperson of the BFL is also the chairperson of a club. Granted, it does work but it presents ethical challenges, which is no wonder why there were question marks over the lightning speed at which justice was delivered. Even if Nicholas Zakhem had no hand in the suspension of the referees and the action is well meaning, there are always perceptions, which can be damaging.