Fichani prepares to tackle tennis challenges
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday February 17, 2017 10:39
Fichani replaced Nelson Amanze at an annual general meeting in Tlokweng a fortnight ago. He takes charge at a time when tennis faces challenging times.
Fichani told Mmegi Sport this week that the state of tennis in Botswana presents a mixed picture in which there are pockets of success, such as in the performance of certain players, especially the junior players in tournaments in the region.
“As our players migrate to higher age groups, we begin to see less and less success.
Other challenges include the low level of participation in the sport nationally, lack of qualified coaches, and a chronic lack of funds to carry out development projects in tennis at both the BTA and in the affiliated clubs,” he said.
Fichani said such challenges are not new to the BTA and they have been identified in the association’s strategic plans going back more than a decade.
He pointed out that the perennial problem that the BTA faces is the slow pace of implementing the strategic plans.
He said that leads to identified problems being rolled over into subsequent strategic plans.
“One needs to take a holistic approach in trying to identify the causes of this poor implementation record. To be fair though, one cannot dismiss the obvious possible causes such as inadequate financial resources, lack of capacity within the BTA and its affiliates, the absence of a proper structure to deliver the strategy.
So it is clear that on paper we have a good strategy but implementation has been the biggest challenge,” Fichani said.
He explained that his approach to turn around tennis in Botswana involves identifying both short and long term goals and treating them as projects that BTA should prioritise and programme into deliverables for the next two years.
Fichani said they want to reduce 100% reliance on the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) grant.
He said one of the initiatives meant to generate income for the association include entering into lease agreements with other parties who may want to use the tennis courts to run a coaching business such as a tennis academy.
He said despite the crises that BTA faced, it was never placed under BNSC management.
He said that is an indication that there is confidence in the way that they have been trying to manage the code. Fichani said he was encouraged by the attendance at the last annual general meeting of clubs that had not complied with either the Registrar of Societies or the BTA as it demonstrated that they still have their hearts in the right place.
Fichani admitted that tennis has been stagnant in recent years, with local players failing to make it into the International Tennis Federation (ITF) rankings.
He said they have been aware of the situation and they know where the fault is.
“We have known where our weakness lies when it comes to the progression of our tennis players from the junior ranks up to what we call elite players.
We do not have funds to engage high calibre coaches for our elite players,” he said.
Regarding sponsorship, Fichani said sponsors are drawn to sporting codes that are both thriving and highly visible and therefore have a chance to publicise their brands while for the sport to thrive, it requires financial resources.
“What is very clear is that the good work that gets done at tennis, especially in the junior development programme goes largely unnoticed. One of the ideas that I intend to take to my marketing team as a challenge, is to come up with a way in which we can showcase the talent that our players have to our prospective sponsors. I believe that this would please their hearts and open their chequebooks,” Fichani said.