THE story of the Zimbabwe Junior Women's Hockey team is, regrettably, a familiar one: a narrative of sporting excellence overshadowed by bureaucratic indifference, culminating in a last-minute, embarrassing “rescue”.
While the nation breathes a collective sigh of relief that our young sportswomen will, indeed, fly the flag at the Junior World Cup in Chile this December, we must not let the government's eleventh-hour intervention distract us from the shameful, six-month ordeal these athletes endured.
The team did its part by securing a fourth consecutive, and sixth overall, World Cup berth by finishing third at the Junior Africa Cup in April.
They delivered the qualification, the pride and the promise. What followed was a protracted, demoralising silence.
For half a year, the Hockey Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) and, by extension, the players, appealed, begged and knocked on doors of the corporate community and, crucially, the government.
Their efforts were met with closed doors and deafening inaction.
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It is an indictment of the highest order that it took a public announcement of withdrawal — the very real, crushing end of a World Cup dream — for the Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture ministry to finally “chip in” and play the hero.
This was not a proactive show of national support; it was a desperate, face-saving scramble, enacted barely 24 hours after HAZ confirmed the team will not be travelling due to crippling financial constraints.
To have known since April that these girls had done the nation proud, had earned the right to compete on the world stage, and yet allow them to face such uncertainty for six long months — only to step in at the moment of public humiliation — is not heroic.
It is an act of political expediency, a desperate attempt to mitigate national embarrassment.
The government should have been the first, most reliable financial pillar of support, not the reluctant, eleventh-hour saviour.
These talented young women did not have to beg. Their qualification alone should have been the catalyst for immediate, comprehensive government backing.
Ensuring they have the funds, training camps and logistical support to compete with distinction is not a favour; it is a fundamental national responsibility.
They earned the right to focus solely on their training and competition, not on whether the cost of their flight would be covered.
But then again they have been on their own in the last three editions where they managed to qualify and had to look for resources to travel on their own.
Only this time the going got tougher.
HAZ, understandably, is effusive, lauding the ministry for its "valued intervention" and "continued commitment." But the truth is, this commitment was woefully late.
It forced the association into the desperate position of having to announce a withdrawal, a decision that must have been heartbreaking for the players, before the necessary funds materialised.
We welcome the fact that the team's World Cup dream has been salvaged.
We wish the Junior Women's Hockey team all the best as it travels to Santiago, Chile, to face strong teams like Argentina, Belgium and Wales.
They have already displayed the resilience and spirit of true champions.
But going forward, the government must do better. The pattern of ignoring successful athletes until the point of crisis, only to step in for a photo-opportunity "rescue," must end.
Genuine commitment to sport means proactive, consistent, and timely funding for all teams that hoist the country’s flag on the international stage. Anything less is, frankly, shameless.