Bowling cries for recognition
Mqondisi Dube | Wednesday July 30, 2014 14:09
Robert raised the concern during the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) annual general meeting in Kanye on Saturday. He said in other countries, government officials always attend competitions, but locally the situation is different. “People take us lightly just because we are bowling. The treatment is unfair,” Robert said.
Responding to the concern, BNSC vice chairperson, Professor Mokgwathi Mokgwathi said they will look into the issue.
BNSC affiliates told the meeting that there should be a score-card to measure their success in tournaments. They said that while the 2014 Gaborone Africa Youth Games were considered as a success, there are outstanding concerns, which were not addressed.
“We cannot fault Botswana on achievement, but we might be complacent.
What bothers us is that we don’t have a score-card to measure success. There are many issues around the Youth Games some of which have not been resolved, but still the tournament was ticked as a success,” a Botswana Cycling Association representative told the meeting.
“We should look at how we measure success. If we naively say we did well without a score-card, then we are fooling ourselves,” he stated.
He argued that the codes “carried a lot” during the Youth Games and are still paying a heavy price.
Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) president, Daniel Molaodi said it is a concern that all that is talked about the Youth Games, is success.
“I have been worried that we only hear about the Youth Games is success, success. We are being complacent and dishonest to ourselves. We might have achieved the target of 30 medals, but what about the quality of these medals?”
He said if the team had prepared well, the quality of medals could be better, asserting that there are things, which did not go well during the Games’ build-up.
Molaodi said it was clear why the acting Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Vincent Seretse was concerned about the medal target of seven out of the 18 athletes sent to the on-going Commonwealth Games.
“This is because we know we have inadequately prepared,” he said. BNSC chairperson, Solly Reikeletseng said the concerns were valid and there is need for yardsticks to measure success. He promised that the sports Vision 2028 score-card will be improved.