‘Like World Cup, like Commonwealth Games’
All has not been well for Team Ghana at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. But that must have come as little surprise.
After all, before the Games began we knew our contingent would not do more than being also-runs at this assembly of 71 sporting nations of the Commonwealth.
We intimated this unfortunate prospect in this column last week Wenesday, the opening day of the Games, knowing the uninspiring level of our preparation, the controversy over selection of athletes and accompanying officials, and the petty bickerings among the leadership.
We didn’t intend to be that pessimmistic but it was just too clear that things would not portend well when complaints, such as those raised by the Chief Athletics Coach, Albert Nukpeza, that he was not only dropped from the Games but was also unaware of the entire team selection forming the final squad, preceded their departure.
So far only a bronze in judo by Razak Abugri that the nation has to show, leaving Ghana unsighted on the abridged medals table of 20 countries, where other African teams such as South Africa, Nigeria, Madagascar, Kenya and Cameroun are among the big hunters.
Even though it has not been for want of trying, as amply demonstraed so far by such young athletes as triple jumpers, Mathilde Boateng and Nadia Eke, runners Flings Owusu-Agyapong and Janet Amponsah, boxer Azumah Mohammed, shooting debutantes Joseph Dzorvakpor and Emmanuel Koli, among others, Team Ghana’s efforts have just not been enough.
Not even the lure of $10,000 for a gold-winning feat put at stake by the nation as announced at the Games by the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Vincent Oppong Asamoah, could transform our athletes into instant winning machines.
It tells us our athletes are not there yet and that no amount of monentary rewards (winning bonuses) can make them perform magic. Perhaps, they should be seeking refuge in demanding for appearance fees too, just like the Black Stars, since without medals there can be no winning bonuses paid to them.
Razak Abugri must, therefore, be the envy of his colleagues, $5,000 being the prize for his bronze-clinching kick at the Games. Little wonder that his fellow judoka, Emmanuel Nartey, who did not reach the medal zone after being despatched by a New Zealander tried other means of making up.
As reported by this paper last Wednesday, Nartey showed disrespect to Ghanaian officials after he was paid his allowances by confronting the deputy sports minister that he be paid some unspecified amount as refund of expenses he incurred.
We were not on the ground there in Glasgow to ascertain what really transpired leading to the subsequent expulsion from the Ghana camp at the Games Village of Nartey, described as a serving officer in the British Army.
But if the allegation of indisciplinary behaviour levelled against him were true then it must be one incident too many for Ghana sports this year after the unsavoury football episode of Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng at the FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
In that instance too, it was the confrontation over money that led to the expulsion from the Stars camp of the two players and against the backdrop of other debilitating and chaotic incidents, which undermined the team’s rising in Brazil.
A three-member Commission of Inquiry named to probe into that embarrassment the Stars caused the nation has yet to be inaugurated as Ghanaians wait with bated breath.
And we suspect that similar fall-outs from the Commonwealth Games, including the reported issue of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) causing a finacial loss to the state by its purchase of unutilised events tickets, could warrant another Commission of Inquiry.
