Handing it to handball
Lazarus Sauti
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It is the fastest
indoor sport after ice hockey, and it is also a sport where players are
encouraged to be flamboyant and inventive.
The game of handball is
an inexpensive activity that can easily be incorporated into any sporting
programme; it is easily modified to fit space, time and number of participants
and it can be played by both sexes and people of all sizes and ages.
Moreover, handball is
suitable for both beginners and experienced players. Players can also play in
either men’s, women’s or mixed divisions.
Accordingly, African
governments should embark on talent identification programmes to promote the
game of handball and at the same time empower the youth.
More so, leaders in
Africa should work with handball federations in their respective countries in
training of coaches and helping them on how to identify potential talents from
the grassroots level.
This also means
handball federations should reach coaches in different areas and/or parts of
the continent give them basic education.
The development of the
game should also go hand in hand with the availability of infrastructure to
achieve continuous development. Training conditions will have a big influence
in the development of the players.
Therefore, African
governments should embark on an infrastructure development exercise and at the
same time have regular competitions for different age groups.
Sadly, most handball
federations in different Africa are handicapped by a lack of financial and
state support.
To alleviate this
problem, handball federations should be equipped with permanent staff in order
to be better able to carry out the various activities in the development of
this sport. Qualified administrators, coaches and referees are needed such that
this development can be realised within the shortest possible time.
This also means that
the African Handball Confederation should train sports journalists on how to
cover handball.
Moreover, the African
Handball Confederation should prepare suitable training materials and organise
training courses for referees and national coaches in Africa to improve the
standard of handball.
Like any other sporting
code in the continent, lack of sponsorship is killing handball. Without proper
funding, the game of handball cannot develop to its full potential.
The president of the
Handball Federation of Nigeria, Yusuf Dauda, blames the low standard of the
sport in Africa on lack of sponsors for the federations’ programmes and
inadequate funding from governments.
“There is the need to
make the sports attractive to corporate bodies by holding competitions and
exposing the young players to international tourneys,” Dauda remarks.
Accordingly, efforts to
revive the sport should be geared towards youth development programmes and to
effectively empower them, teams should extent their scouting yardstick to rural
areas because talent is not only in towns and cities.
Furthermore, handball
teams should nurture raw talent that is potentially abundant in areas where the
game remains unknown. This means handball federations across African countries
should fund initiatives that enhance talent identification and groom raw talent
for national handball teams.
To bring sponsors,
Dauda believe that “it is important to build the game so that we will have a
good brand to present to sponsors”.
African governments,
through responsible line ministries, should give attention to this sporting
code instead of only thinking of soccer.
They should take
handball seriously by investing in its growth and success; and they should not
treat it as an inferior code that features as an afterthought.
Private organisations
in African countries should support and sustain the sport by providing
sponsorship wherever possible.
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