Limited resources disrupt hockey camp

Kabelo Boranabi | Friday May 10, 2019 14:51

 

The teams will be gunning for their first points in indoor hockey in a bid to improve their rankings. Botswana would be making a maiden indoor hockey appearance in the tournament to be held from May 28 to June 1, 2019.

However, the camp has been hit by lack of resources with playing equipment and facilities being the main shortages. “We have limitations in terms of facilities. We have been forced to use community halls as alternatives. We also have an issue with equipment, the one we have is for the open field hockey. Since we do not have sponsors, players are forced to buy their own equipment. To some extent, this has disturbed our preparations, players tend to forgo training because they do not have the required equipment,” the women’s team coach, Unaswi Matengu told Mmegi Sport yesterday.

She also said due to academic commitments, they had to reschedule some of the training sessions. “This is a very youthful team, made up of youngsters most of them, who are at university. Because of school commitments we cannot have them here all the time, but we have found a way around it to make our preparations as smooth as possible,” she said.

Matengu has assembled youthful squads with ages between 19 and 24, with two teams of 12 players each.  She said the players have been responding well to transition from field to indoor hockey.

“We would be playing teams that have been to the World Cup while we are making our first appearance. We are not worried; we just have to compete for the points so we can get a ranking. The players we have here have been playing a lot of field hockey so the transition has not been easy, but they are responding very well to the training methods. As coaches we are focusing on tactics now.”

“There is just too much excitement in the camp because this will be our first appearance in indoor hockey. We are not going there just to participate, but we will be fighting for points despite the problems we are facing and the quality of our opponents,” she said. The men’s team will face Africa’s number one ranked team, South Africa while the women’s team will battle it out against Africa’s third placed side, Zimbabwe, and also play South Africa.  This will form part of the preparations for the World Cup qualifiers to be held next year.