How Nam has spoiled Blantyre derby
After getting fed up with problems that have rocked the Malawi netball Queens ahead of the Fast5 Netball World Series in Australia, I need to take a breather and focus on the much-touted Super League derby between Nyasa Big Bullets and Be Forward Wanderers today.
It has been a frustrating week considering that Malawi’s sports beacon of hope, the Malawi Queens, have lost the tournament in Australia before it throws off.
Dropping player-of-the-moment Mwawi Kumwenda ahead of such crucial games, especially when the whole nation was against the idea, smacks of lack of seriousness and arrogance.
Some of us who have been in the trenches for over two decades can testify that, before we started electing people who have no knowledge of netball, we were united and proud of the domestic netball family that was basking in the glory of the sport.
All that is history.
Even after reading the story in our sister paper, The Daily Times, behind Mwawi’s exclusion from the camp, which borders on communication breakdown, I am not convinced that the netball star deserved that punishment.
After all, the player was enjoying her holiday and she travelled back home using her own money and, above all, she is on off-season break.
Anyway, that is the price the nation pays when it entrusts crucial responsibilities of running big sports such as netball in people who have never played the game. They always prioritise their egos to the detriment of the sport.
I can’t even spend my energy condemning those hooligans that go to football matches to cause mayhem because I am bubbling with anger with this Netball Association of Malawi (Nam) Executive Committee which has been in office for a few months, but has already caused much distress with its archaic management style.
Countrymen, where do I get the courage to comment on football, when our beloved sport, netball, is on the verge of collapse after being assassinated by our own mothers who are supposed to be sympathetic to their daughters.
Should I seriously spend a lot of energy discouraging violence at the Blantyre derby, which has been taken to Lilongwe this afternoon when I am frustrated with these administrators poisoned with negativity and are allergic to positive thinking?
Where do I get the courage to comment about the report in which Fifa has faulted Bingu National Stadium, which is currently losing shape, when I know there is potential disaster in Melbourne?
Makosana, do we have to be dreaming about this derby, when we know that the Queens have gone to such a competition without Coach, Griffin Saenda Senior, who is bedridden and his assistant Sam Kanyenda, who chickened out in protest against Nam’s interference after it dropped Mwawi from camp without his blessings.
All in all, after watching this derby today, I expect a flurry of excuses from Nam officials in Melbourne.
As usual, giving us a hot smile while smartly dressed in well-tailored mini-skirts and blouses, they will eat fat allowances and get away with it.
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