Thu 28 Aug, 2008
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Zimbabwe: Hockey in the Doldrums  x8
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November 3, 2003 
AllAfrica.com, Africa
> Page Views 1891
Zimbabwean hockey continues to sink deeper into the quagmire amid startling revelations that the country's two stadiums, Magamba and Khumalo in Harare and Bulawayo respectively, are no longer fit for international matches.
The two pitches' surfaces, which were built in 1995 towards the All Africa Games hosted by Zimbabwe, have exceeded their lifespan and are in dire need of repair.
StandardSport discovered that the surfaces should have been replaced in 2000 but due to financial constraints facing the sport, this was not done.
Gavin Stephens, president of the Zimbabwe Hockey Association, told StandardSport that all was not well within the sport because the association was failing to raise enough funds.
"The surfaces need to be repaired from time to time to meet international standards but due to financial hindrances facing our association, we have been failing to do so.
"As a result our two national stadia are no longer fit for international matches and as such other nations are no longer prepared to come to play in Zimbabwe," said Stephens.
In the run up to the just-ended 8th All Africa Games held in Nigeria, Zimbabwe did not play a single international hockey friendly match resulting in the team receiving a heavy bashing in Abuja.
The men's team lost 0-10 to Egypt in their opening match before going down by half the score line to hosts, Nigeria.
Stephens added that he could not foresee any international hockey friendly matches for Zimbabwe in the near future as the association was battling to raise the foreign currency required for international tours.
"We are faced with a situation whereby we cannot raise the foreign currency to tour other nations and as such I do not foresee any international matches in the near future," said Stephens.
Before the All Africa Games, the national hockey squad had to train in two camps as the association failed to assemble the Bulawayo and Harare based players at one camp.
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Comments on this article
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mbanga maria m
01-12-2004 12:07 am
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hockey in zimbabwe
well it is disheartening to learn that hockey , a game i felt was striving to be going down due to lack of funding . however i believe that there is a way out , there has to be some green light at the end of the gloomy road . I also feel it will do us good if you said specifically how much is needed , so that some of us die hard hockey players and hockey outside may input our two cents and also seek some form of funding .I currently am playing for an international club in dallas Texas in the US and would love to contribute to make a difference . I would not want to see the game i love go down this way . Come on now we can do it .
Former Mashoanaland Hockey association Secretary and mashonaland women player and founder Of chasers An all black women hockey team
Email address : mbanga_maria@hotmail.com
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M.T.M. (S. Africa)
01-19-2004 1:17 pm
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hockey in zim
when the Khumalo stadium was built for the 5th All Africa Games in 1995, I was one of those who was totally against the idea. I felt that the money could have been used for better things...that was until I started playing hockey. I played the sport for Milton High School which is just across the road from the stadium and some of the best memories of my life are from the time I played there. For the rest of my high school years, hockey became my life and the Khumalo stadium became my second home.
I can't believe that such a great sport with many talented players could die simply because people are neglecting the stadia. I understand about the harsh economic situation but still it saddens me to see potentially good players (both black and white) being denied the opportinity to play the sport they love simply because they have nowhere to play it.
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Gareth Hodges
03-04-2004 10:52 pm
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We care...but so what!!!
I am a Zimbabwean that left my country when i was 18. I am no in Australia and have been here for almost a year.
When I arrived in Australia I was very keen to get into the hockey scene here because the Aussie's are "hard core" hockey players! I was sent to a high school here who had their own turf! Yes they had their own hockey turf and it was in such a better condition than the turf's in Zimbabwe.
I have played hockey in Zim for the majority of my life and when there was going to be a stadium built i was very excited although i never knew it would play such a big part in my life later to come. I remebmer how dissapointed when i found out that the womens game's would be played in Bulawayo and not the mens game's for the All Africa game's.
I went to watch the game's and the stadium was well, it was new and everything was working properly.
Later on in my life, when I went to Falcon College, I managed to make the national side for U16 and U18 where we played South Africa at U16 level. U18 was a no go, no funds and disorganisation was the cause.
Over the years the stadium from 1995 to 2003 the times when I played on it most being the latter years, but the continous disintergration of the pitches and organising was very evident but the repair and attempted maintenance was enough to keep us playing but only just.
Now I read the latest reports on how the two pitches are going and well we all say how we would love to do something for the hockey in Zimbabwe but we now all live in our new respective countries and we can all play hockey on new and well maintained pitches and keep our game up, but do we really feel that whatever we do to try and help the hockey would actually do anything. There has been very limited attempts to fundraise in the country and if it was done locally would people be able to afford a decent priced raffle ticket or whatever the case was because people are struggleng and they can't support themselves let alone a minority sport.
If any money was raised it would have to be from outside the country and this bring's me back to my point earlier. We all live in our new homes overseas and we will not be going back to Zim anytime soon, so what would we achieve, there are chance the money will get stolen, a cival war could break out, who knows....????
This is a tragedy for Zim hockey and I praise the people still trying to keep it running and going as smoothly as possible. Good on ya' guys and girls!!
Good luck and may God help you to keep it going. I wish i could do more but we need action not "I wish" or "hope".
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Ms V
03-08-2004 9:13 pm
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Can I just ask. Have we stood back and looked at the big picture! This is a country for whom people have been thrown into disarray. The case has gotten so serious that there is a non profit organisation arranging for sanitary womens products to be sent the country because they are either so expensive that they cannot afford them, or there are none to purchase. Whilst the sport being in dissaray disapoints me, there are greater issues at hand here!!
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Disgusted
05-11-2004 1:53 pm
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School-Boy Hockey
I would like to say how disgusted i am with the corruption, of the referees, esp in the Bulawayo district.
To make the Zim under 18 team, one has to know the selectors personally. For a team like mine (Midlands) there are very good players who have no hope of makeing the team simply because they are from the Midlands.
This year i am playing for the U21 team for the first time and i hope to see an improvement, but am afraid to get my hopes up.
Let's stop this corruption!
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Ms V
05-11-2004 11:12 pm
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Point the finger at the top. Blame everything on Mugabe!!
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arane
09-12-2005 8:49 am
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aranemarco@yahoo.fr
Salut cher correspondant
Moi c'est Christine je suis de quarante huit ans et je vis au Canada particulièrement au Québec.
et mon époux dans l'entreprise mes enfants ont respectivement 19 et 25 ans , nous vivons ensemble. Suite a mes profondes recherches que je suis arrive a vous extraire parmi tant d'adresse .je suis de la nationalité canadienne et je vis actuellement au canada , dans le seul but de vouloir me correspondre et afin de pouvoir s'y venir a une rencontre sérieuse je vous adresse ce message dans le but de correspondre avec vous et d'échanger les relations sincère et durable l'amitié est très précieuse et la garde des contacts est une confiance au font de soi-même ceux qui est très précieux dans cette vie. j'aimerais vous connaître de mieux. et aussi les cultures de vos pays car je n'ai jamais venu en Afrique .je voudrais avoir des renseignements sur l'Afrique à savoir les coutumes , les moeurs, ...aussi
mon mari est actuellement au Bénin pour un recrutement dans tout les domaines d'activité pour leurs entreprise ici au Canada. veuillez me répondre sur mon émail: aranemarco@yahoo.fr
j'aimerais vous lire très prochainement .
cordialement .
Merci
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bigdhara04
09-19-2005 7:12 pm
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i agree
the subject of selection has always been and i believe will always be an isuue. i played hockey for milton high school for six years and every year i witnessed players from the less financially advantaged schools struggling to be selected for both matabeleland and zimbabwe, a good example was noel samu failing to be selected for a zim schools side but easily walked into zim mens side.
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