Hockey: Talking Points from Africa club championship
KAMPALA.
Egypt’s Eastern Company and Kenya’s Orange Telkom managed to defend their titles at the 29th edition of the Africa Cup for Club Championships (ACCC) that climaxed Sunday at City Park Nairobi.
Ghana, Kenya closing up
However, the days when Egyptian teams would steamroll the rest of Africa minus Republic of South Africa, who don’t partake in ACCC, seem to be behind us.
Eastern lost 2-1 in the pool stages to Kenya Police (KP) and needed penalty shoot-outs in the semi (4-2 against Kenya’s Butali Warriors) and finals (3-2 against KP). Egypt Sharkia, the men’s record holders with 22 trophies, finished 5th.
National teams, league help
Ghana whose two female teams, Revenue Authority (GRA) and Police, have finished behind nine-time holders Orange in the last two editions, attribute their improvement to a partnership their governing body forged with England.
Kenya has been an ACCC regular but the growth of their home league, where they now have 20 clubs from just about 10 three years ago, means they have much match experience ahead of tournaments like this.
Their national team is also very active unlike Uganda’s which when disbanded, due to players’ indiscipline ahead of the 2012 Olympic qualifiers, has never been revived.
Uganda must cope
With less than 10 schools, six clubs – that make a paltry 10 league teams for both men and women’s categories, it means we do not have the same familiarity of the game as the Kenyans.
There is also exposure and goodwill lost in the public domain when a sport has no national team.
To bridge gaps, Uganda Hockey Association must revive national teams, to build experience of its players, starting with next month’s inaugural President’s Cup in Tanzania.
Need for tier competitions
Ugandan clubs help build statistics for opponents at ACCC (Weatherhead men and Wananchi ladies 14-0 and 11-0 losses to champions and GRA respectively, come to mind).
Weatherhead Gazelles, who have been at ACCC four times, have never won a game while their men’s side beat Ugandan rivals Wananchi for their maiden win.
The Wananachi ladies, with an average age of 18, got a 2-1 win over fellow minnows Tanzania Ladies Club so to aid their development, Africa Hockey Federation (AfHF) might need to introduce another competition for lesser playing nations, from where their clubs graduate to ACCC.
Kampala Hockey Cub (KHC) attributed the loss of their players in 2014 to their poor show in ACCC that year. One hopes recent results don’t shudder the confidence of young players that went to Nairobi.
