Our mediocrity cost us CHAN 2018 hosting rights

modern tartan track laid

There is never a dull moment in Kenya’s sporting scene and this month has not been an exception, only worse because that is how things sport in Kenya are. For a better part of the month, Harambee Starlets have been playing in the COSAFA tourney, and for a moment, Kenyans who have been keen on the progress of the young ladies thought that they will bring home the trophy.

Some wags were already saying that they should replace the men’s team, Harambee Stars who have not been shining very bright, and if things continue the way they are, they will keep getting dimmer.

The young ladies were doing well but their armour was pierced in the last minute and they had to settle for the fourth position.

Away from the football pitch, the Kenya national women’s cricket team was also in Namibia for the ICC Africa Women’s World Twenty20 qualifier. Their hopes of reaching the finals were dashed by Uganda who went ahead and beat Zimbabwe in the finals to claim Africa’s only slot in ICC Global Women’s T20 qualifiers.

The men’s team was also not lucky in the Africa T20 Cup in South Africa. They were cruising and there was hope that they would progress past the group stages, but they were felled by stronger sides from places where sports and sportsmen are given the respect they deserve.

We can argue that these teams learnt crucial lessons and that all is not lost, but for how long will Kenyans keep consoling themselves?

There was also the minor issue of Kenyan Premier League having their day in court and getting ordered to reduce the number of teams to 16, from 18 – at a time when there are less than ten rounds of matches remaining.

Why is it difficult to get things right, you may ask, more so if you have been following the goings on at both Football Kenya Federation and Kenyan Premier League.

We can advance all types of arguments and lame excuses to support our weak positions, but the underlying problem with sports management in Kenya is mediocrity. Sports managers at all levels – from federations to the ministry – have embraced mediocrity as a standard operating procedure and do not try to work their way towards success.

The biggest blow to Kenyan sports was the country being stripped of the rights to host CHAN 2018, a competition Kenya’s officialdom knew about ages ago, but still could not get their ducks in a row in time, leaving CAF with no option but to ask others who are ready to bid for the rights to host the championship.

Kenyans can say all that they want about CAF, but as long as Kenya’s sports managers keep thinking that the sun rises from their orifices and that continental sports bodies must wait for them, sports in Kenya will keep going down the unfinished drains of the stadia that were supposed to host the CHAN 2018.

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

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