SHARUKO ON SATURDAY - ITS ALL GLOOMY But even if we sail past the Zambians this afternoon, that success won’t mask the fact that the quality of the players that we have in our Premiership has gone a rung lower, if not two rungs lower, when compared to what we used to have just four years ago when we were Cosafa Cup champions and when we qualified for two straight CHAN finals. I looked at the team of home-based Warriors that played in our first CHAN match against Namibia, five years ago under Valinhos, and realised that eight of those players – Arubi, Jambo, Sweswe, Gutu, Matawu, Sadomba, Chikwaikwai and Mwanjali – went on to play football in foreign leagues. I look around the domestic Premiership today and I see that the leading goal-scorer, Tendai Ndoro, who is the first-choice forward of the home-based Warriors, is a player who four years ago, when these men were dominating the local top-flight league, could not fit but only play in the Botswana league and that tells me something. I check the name of the player in second position, on the goal-scorers’ charts, and I see that it’s Jacob Muzokomba, the same man who played for Lancashire Steel in 2005, eight years ago, went to play fantasy football in Swaziland, came back home last year, went down with Hardbody only to resurface at Buffaloes and that tells me something. I check who Black Rhinos have turned to during the mid-season window, in their hope to get goals, and I see that it’s 38-year-old Gilbert Mushangazhike, a journeyman who made his debut for Fire Batteries exactly 20 years ago, before taking his career to Germany, South Africa and China and that tells me something. I check who Black Mambas have turned to during the mid-season transfer window, in their hope to boost their attack, and I see it’s Evans Gwekwerere, a man struggling to put his career back on track after the heights scaled seven years ago, and it tells me something. Washington Pakamisa, a championship winner eight years ago before injuries wrecked his career to the extent that they even started writing the epitaph on his career, has somehow reinvented himself to become the main striker at Dynamos. Dominic Chungwa, who was playing for Eagles three years ago before spending last season in Division One at Hippo Valley, has somehow reinvented himself, at the age of 27, to become the leading light in the CAPS United attack. That Beavan Chikaka, who was forced to retreat to Botswana three years ago when the domestic Premiership was brimming with quality, can return and, at the age of 29, convert himself as the point man in the strikeforce for a team as big as Highlanders tells me a story of a game that is not in good health. And I hear that Bosso have turned to Master Masitara, remember him, he has been somewhere in Botswana, to boost their attack during this midweek transfer window and I won’t be surprised either, with the way things are going, if he makes a success story of his return to the Premiership. My point is that we can succeed in Ndola today, qualify for the CHAN finals, but the reality is that something has gone terribly wrong with the nursery, the production line, which used to roll out outstanding footballers for us in the past and, somehow, there is no fresh talent, no fresh-faced teenagers coming on board and bringing both the excitement and the promise that the long- term prospects of our national game are secure. Right now, no matter what happens in Ndola this afternoon, it all looks gloomy.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 20:02:56 +0000
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