Something to make you go hmm! Part 2
Accra - The story about the women's national team trip to La Cote D'Ivoire and the comments it drew here continues to create ripples within the Ghanaian basketball community. The latest addition has come from none other than the chairman of the GABBA , Mr Benjamin Yaw Sakyi Baaafi, who also served as the manager for the team on the trip.
In a conversation with him this morning after his morning work out at Lebanon House, he made it clear that even though the women did not perform well at all, he was not happy with some of the comments that were made on the story especially the one from Gasu. Siting the fact that he (Gasu) is a referee and belongs to the Ghana basketball family and knows how difficult it is to get funding to do things for basketball in Ghana. He also mentioned how several individuals had to sacrifice their time and money before this trip could come on.
"The women went to play for them to gain qualification to the AfroBasket 2011 to be held in June 2011" he said in his statement. He also sited that the GBBA saw this as an opportunity for Ghana to get an easy qualification since Nigeria did not bother to show up because they had already qualified. As a result La Cote D'Ivoire has qualified for both the All African games and Afrobasket 2011.
The GBBA had a lot of problems in the preparation for the trip, most pertinent amongst them being finance. He said some players also failed to honor the calling to the team and others were not able to make it because of other important engagements they had during the period of the trip. "Anybody who has followed the league over the years knows that this wasn't the best women's team that could have been put together, but there so many issues that prevented the GBBA from putting together the best possible team", the team manager added.
He ended his talk by saying that the GBBA and all of its stakeholders are going to soon start active preparations for next year's trip to Mali.
Now this really makes me go hmmmmm.Well for one I guess this has to be tagged as anon cuz as the hiphoppers would say streets is watching.It typically African for us to start making excuses,the truth of the matter is we better learn to tell it like it is.It's only when you identify a problem that it can be solved.Excuses don't get us anywhere.Gasu told the truth,it was not an insult,it was not sarcastic but it was just what we hate most.The cold hard truth.THE WOMEN IN GHANA HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO(Basketball is just one part of it lol).Every thing boils down to lack of structure and planning and I'm not going to join the band wagon and start assigning blame.It's all our fault,it's a team sport and Remember ''we are basketball"'.Isn't it funny how everybody loves rebound gh for publicity and photo's but when it comes to cold hard truth,then we have issues about it.Aba,Ireally appreciate Mr Baafi,and unnderstand that this trip was full of sacrifice but please enough of the escuses.Let's learn from our mistakes let's stop these non paying of per diem thins....damn this has been going on forever.Yes we don't have money but a litle sacrifice,planning,and creative thinking around our problems will solve some few problems but still something is being solved.Good job RGH this is not about pointing fingers or hiding the truth it's about finding solutions.Good job Mr Baafi,some of us have heard how hard your working but my dear sir the truth is and will always be the truth.
ReplyDeleteI think the coment is longer than the article...oh and I never knew Mr Baffi was called "Yaw Sekyi" hmm this is intresting...
ReplyDeleteWell I gotta put it simple...which of the officials of any dept or ministry goes on any trip without per diem??? they wud NOT go !! if an MP gets 50 000 dollars for his car allowance alone and there are 233 MPs in Ghana, DO THE BLOODY MATHS !!! But we cant pay 40-50 dollars a day to basketball players who go a max of 10 days outside, then its plain wickedness !!! Every trip, the ghanaian contingent have to on the last day hear the 'SACRIFICE' speech b4 they leave. BUUUULLLLL SHIIIIIITT !!! In guinea conakry the per diem there is 90 dollars per day.and they arent as wealthy as ghana is, they just got their priorities straight...sports builds nations.if u dont believe that, then u aint worth speaking to and reasoning with. PAY PER DIEMS AS MOTIVATION FOR PLAYERS TO FIGHT HARD AT TOURNAMENTS. IDIOTS !!!
ReplyDeletei agree with Mr. Baafi in a way that we must lean our mistakes and stop these non paying of per diem thins if u should have such an ideas we will not move ahead "respect, cooperation,and unity and must be prayerful
ReplyDeleteTell it like it is hommmie.I we need more comment out here on topic like this.We've got let people know that there are enough people who care about this game.I like what the first guy said.It's time we stopped making flimsy excuses and get to work. But first let's ''tell it like it is"
ReplyDeleteinteresting feedback so far...but we here will appreciate if y'all put out some names...enough of the anonymous comments...like the first comment said..this is not about pointing fingers but about finding solution....if u dont wanna put ur real name out there..even a nickie could do...keep the comments coming though
ReplyDeletehow do u expect ppl to put names wen they will be crucify later. am a living example of how the GBBA throw me out of the national congress on the ground that i said they are not doing much to big up the sports...why dont we take the criticism and use it as fuel to improve....imma do wat i gat to do, besides, look around...who really love gh ball?
ReplyDeleteI'm with hoops on this one(though I don't see why you should be in the national congress). No more name for fear of crucifiction. @ Rebound, commot for there you go get make we the coment so.This is Ghana,if you don't remember.
ReplyDeleteMy comment on the results of the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire games was in no way meant to downplay or rubbish the effort made by the women as well as the efforts the team's officials and other individuals made to ensure that the team got to La Cote d'Ivoire. Far from that! Although my comment was hyperbolic, I thought it would be taken in good faith. However, reactions to the comment seem to suggest that I am an enemy of Ghana basketball. That is unfortunate. The comment has been described in some quarters as "by heart". I think I have learnt another lesson in life:it is better to keep one's big mouth shut and concentrate on oneself.
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