Kenya's sports bodies must treat players better

Any conversation about Kenya’s corporate firms that spend money on sports and related matters would not be complete without the mention of East Africa Breweries Ltd.

The brewers, who have totally dominated the country’s drinking dens, have a football team, Tusker FC, named after their flagship tipple. 

Many years ago, it was called Kenya Breweries FC and they were giant killers. It seemed, Breweries FC used to train for Kenya’s two big clubs, Gor Mahia FC and AFC Leopards and rarely would they lose to them.

When it comes to financial resources, Tusker FC have a wealthy parent, thanks to Kenyans’ main pastime which once angered the CECAFA Secretary General who implied that Kenyans prefer bending their elbows in pubs to doing the Mexican Wave in stadia during football matches.

As such, one would expect Tusker FC players to be spoilt brats — a football club with what other clubs lack and what they need to succeed both on and off the pitch, starting with the pitch itself.

I would want to believe — and I doubt I am wrong — that a playing ground is one of the basic sports infrastructure that play a major role in improving the quality of the game and the players’ well-being as it protects them from needless injuries and keeps them in the sport for long. It also makes them play better.

Based on how loud East African Breweries is on sports, with almost each of its brands associated with some a sports discipline, either as direct sponsors or in the form of charity, otherwise known as Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, one would expect their charity to start at home, their Ruaraka home ground, whose surface currently resembles a barley farm during the planting season.

By and large, Kenya’s sports-related entities do not treat their human capital as well as they should, but ironically, they still expect very positive results.

Away from EABL and its barley farm of a playing ground, the other day, we watched a scantily dressed ball boy shiver in torrential rain during the final of the GoTV Shield while officials of the federation and their guests giggled from the warm VIP section of the stadium.

To me, mistreating that Boy Child is the most heartless thing Kenya’s football fraternity has done this year. Can that young man and his friends be inspired to play for local clubs if what is being inculcated in their minds is sufferance?

How does Kenya expect to make a mark on the continental sports grounds when its facilities, starting with the basic — the playing grounds — do not inspire aspiring sportspersons to look forward to joining clubs or representing the country?

For anything to change, Kenya’s sports entities and corporate firms need to stop mistreating their human capital.

 

The writer is an editor with The Standard, Weekend Editions.