Poor facilities blamed for low standards

By OSCAR PILIPILI

Sub-standard training facilities are being blamed for the fallen standards of local hockey.

Kenya has only one world-class facility — City Park Stadium — but cannot cater for the over 10,000 players actively involved in hockey. It is unrealistic for players to train on murram pitches and only get a feel of the artificial one during league matches.

Experts say formation of muscles depends on the type of training surface and that it is difficult for a player who trains on murram to do well on artificial pitch.

The speed of a ball is faster on murram surface and slower on water-based artificial pitch like the edel grass turf at City Park Stadium.

Due to the high cost of maintaining City Park Stadium, teams have kept off the venue and opted to train on either grass or murram pitches.

Park Road veteran player David Omwaka says it was time the Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) reduced training charges for teams to access the facility. "Training at City Park Stadium is very expensive for self-supporting clubs," he said.

"We understand it requires a substantial amount to maintain the stadium, but KHU should reduce charges from Sh2,500 to a manageable fee of Sh1,000 per hour," Omwaka opined.

He said it becomes hard for upcoming players to adapt to the artificial turf since basics required vary from one surface to the other.

"We need at least two more public stadia in Nairobi and one each in Kisumu, Kakamega, Mombasa, Eldoret and Nakuru for training," he said.

Suspended KHU secretary general, Peter Kiruma, feels there should be more stadia in Kenya and appeals to the Government to develop two in the original map of the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.

"Federation of International Hockey requires a country to have two pitches at one venue to qualify to host a major international tournament," he said.

would benefit

Kiruma says once the Kasarani pitches are developed, the Sports Stadia Management Board would benefit as teams will be paying to use the facilities.

"Just like Football Kenya pays for the use of the football pitch by their teams, KHU will also pay to use the hockey facilities once they are available," Kiruma said.

The Blue Eaglets manager Olubayi Amai says the standards of the sport have dropped since upcoming players lack fundamental basic skills, which he blames on lack of facilities.

"Today’s hockey is much different from yesteryear’s. What a player needs is to get the fundamental skills from the start to succeed," Amai, who also coaches St George’s High team, said.

According to Olubayi, imparting skills in young players is a major challenge when using murram pitches common in the country.

He said: "There is no cheating and running in current hockey and a successful player must get the basics from the grassroots and this will only happen when playing on the right surface.

"You can’t train a player on flicks and doing tricky things that are done at high level on murram," he said.

The veteran coach foresees collapse of the game if the development of facilities will not be given priority. Kenya felt the consequences of lack of a world class facility when the City Park Stadium, that was built for the 1987 All Africa Games, was closed for renovation in 2003.

During the period, Kenya missed out on international hockey and when they made a comeback at the 2007 African Olympics Qualifiers, other countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt were miles ahead of the once continental powerhouse.

Shortly before the stadium was closed, an Indian team abandoned their tour of Nairobi after playing two matches for fear of their safety due to a worn out pitch.

Since the reopening of the stadium in 2007, the progress of the sport has been good with international teams and tournaments returning to Kenya.

Poorly trained local players could never match their counterparts from countries like South Africa where good facilities are in abundance.

|   |    |    Comments (0) |   Add Comment