Fair-weather patriots must fall
Mmegi Editor | Wednesday January 18, 2017 11:18
In a rally where 96 of the 150 riders who began, failed to finish, Crosbie finished all 12 tortuous stages to become the sixth debutant across the line. The Botswana flag was proudly flown for the first time at the finishing line of the legendary rally, capturing the world’s attention and earning the country valuable international goodwill.
Little did the international viewers know that before leaving for the tough rally, Crosbie was forced to run an equally punishing endurance race to secure sponsorship for the rally.
Crosbie had doors slammed on his face from the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development to the Botswana National Sports Commission, as he sought support for the historic mission.
The ambitious biker was eventually supported by a motley of private sector entities, who contributed in cash, kind and other means to ensure the dream of raising the Botswana flag at the Dakar rally became a reality. Special mention should be made of the BITC and Botswana Tourism Organisation which bucked the trend in (quasi) government support and substantially bailed Crosbie out.
The young biker’s experience ahead of the rally is sadly common among non-football sports codes in Botswana. Public funding of sports is heavily and deliberately skewed towards football, the main national sport, despite the lack of meaningful regional or international success.
Other codes such as athletics and swimming, where names of Batswana tellingly echo around the world, are perennially under-funded because they are viewed as marginal. Botswana’s senior netball team is one of Africa’s strongest, often standing shoulder to shoulder with the world’s best.
However, it still has to rely on the scraps that fall from the table where only poor but much loved football sups. It is not in question that for many young men, football represents more than just recreation, but an opportunity to break out of rural poverty and earn a living. Certainly football, due to the numbers’ game, can deliver more youths out of poverty and sustain more incomes, than athletics which tends to require greater individual excellence for any sort of sustainable income to be made.
However, it could be argued that part of the reason for this is because of the underdevelopment of athletics and other non-football codes by government and its associated entities. Fair-weather patriots are reluctant to dig into pockets to fund these codes, but are at the head of the cheering pack when the snubbed heroes return in triumph. For corporates, their reluctance is linked to the returns from publicity, where football’s popularity promises more spread. But government has no excuse to under-fund non-football codes, particularly at grassroots levels and in terms of infrastructure development. A better balance can be found.
Today’s thought
“We have done it Batswana. We have brought the blue, black and white over the finish line”
- Vincent Crosbie