Israel Saria
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The numbers of East African men and women seeking the path to success seems to be growing all the time, not the least in sporting circles.
In Tanzania’s Hasheem Thabeet and other sporting icons, Tanzania and the rest of East Africa is announcing to the world that we have talent as good as , if not better , than from anywhere else in the world.
Even as young men and women dream the dream and say yes we can, there is the small matter that come to play in the pursuit of these dreams. That small matter which was addressed this week by Tanzania Olympic Committee Chairman Col (Rtd) Iddi Kipingu, needs plenty of drumming for the message to sink .
It is the message of discipline & sacrifice. Success in sports as indeed in every sphere of life depends heavily on individual discipline, hard work and sacrifice. The impression created by gossip columns and arm chair analysts is a falsification of reality.
Picking up a copy of the popular Mwanaspoti or listening to Kipanya and co. on Radio Clouds may give the impression that success comes easily. Indeed, the headlines of these sports papers & Radio commentaries seem to scream the ease & good life and fail miserably to give the reality of what it takes to achieve the successes of the Messi’s of the world.
The trouble with highlighting all these good things is no one tells our young people that t be a Messi or an Etoo, one needs to sacrifice all the night life, the alcohol binges, the skirt or the trouser wearers whichever the case may be.
No one tells you the many hours of training. It never mentions the amount of denials of the good things in life that no one else can impose on athlete except themselves. It is virtually the same in all spheres of life that the difference between a student who passes or fails their examinations is influenced by the amount of time one places on their studies and pays attention to the things that matter.
The success of our very own Mbwana Samatta in DRC Motema Pembe Football Club is not the amount of talent alone much as we know that talent counts. It is going to depend on personal sacrifices he is willing to make.
If the young man choices the path of sacrifices, he has a chance to be seen in the future Champions League finals much in the same manner we saw Macdonald Mariga of Kenya in last year’s cameo appearance in the final of the Europeans Champions League final
It is a sacrifice Macdonald has made and for that he reportedly earns the equivalent of Tanzanian Shillings 1.7b per month . How does that compare with ex-Mtibwa and now Simba midfielder Hamoud who chest thumped and said he was as good as Drogba and Kalou when these stars (Chelsea & Cameroon) came calling last year? He seems not to be on the first team at Simba anymore, what happened?
It is highly possible that Hamoud has lost his form. However, there are lessons to be learnt from what Col Kipingu, a renowned sports administrator, was saying. That while there are many talented and promising young Tanzanian sports men and women , the attitude exhibited by Hamoud seems to be our greatest draw back yet.
In stead of engaging the Drogba’s and Kalou’s to find out why and how they made it to the big leagues of the world, our players are keen to preen themselves and brag about having played the stars out of the game!. That was not the point of exposure in these sort of games. The point in these exposure games is to make our sportsmen stop admiring these persons on TV and realize they are human but work hard at it.
Youngster Mbwana Samatta said it as much . within few weeks he says the amount of training put into professional football that he has found at DC Motema Pembe of DRC Congo is beyond anything he has seen at Simba. It takes hard work to succeeeda and our sportsmen ought to know that.
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The point in these exposure games is to make our sportsmen stop admiring these persons on TV and realize they are human but work hard at it.