Believe it or not but Ghana’s best successes in any sporting discipline over the last year have come in Cricket. Cricket? Yes but most of us have never heard of this sport let alone know how it is played to even know that Ghana have got teams at U-13, U-15, U-17, U-19 and Senior levels. And worse? The organization and running of the sport in this country goes without any recognition from the National Sports Council and Ministry for Sports. Yes they do not recognize the sport.

Last Saturday at the Achimota Oval, the nation’s U-13 Cricket side emerged winners of the maiden North-West Africa Cricket championship. Led by Man of the Match Clement Afinpi Ateak who scored a total of 181 runs in four matches, the Ghanaian youngsters edged their Sierra Leonean counterparts on a superior run rate to emerge the inaugural champions.

This follows the success of the U-17 side in their competition held in Abeokuta, Nigeria in November last year. Ghana are also the affiliate champions in the same North-West Africa zone at the U-19 level not discounting the success of the Seniors at their tournament in Mozambique in April of last year. Ghana also holds the diadem as champions in the U-15 category of which they’ve been champions now for four years following Gambia’s inability to stage last year’s competition as planned.

So is there any other sporting discipline in this country which can boast of champions in almost every level of their competition? Football? Boxing? Athletics? Hockey? Certainly not. But like all other so-called ‘lesser known sports,” cricket is suffering the bane of government and corporate neglect. Alhaji Mubarak Munkata, the Minister responsible for Sports has apparently revealed the list of ten sporting disciplines his administration intends to focus and develop. Cricket is not one of these ten.

According to Mr. Prince Vanderpuije-Orgle, Chairman of the Ghana Cricket Association, the team which won the Seniors’ tournament last year have yet to receive monies promised them before they embarked on the journey to success. “We had to borrow money to fund our trip to Mozambique because we were promised by the then government to get our money when we come back. We agreed to that even though we know that we had to get that money before making the journey, as pertains to all other sporting disciplines. We went and won the tournament for Ghana but we have still to receive this money which means we have also failed to settle our debtors,” Mr. Vanderpuije-Orgle revealed.

The U-13 tournament hosted last week involving Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Nigeria and Cameroon was hugely successful even without any full sponsorship. But we have to acknowledge the efforts of the likes of CAL Bank which donated GH¢1,400, Sneda Motors (GH¢1,000), Tata Motors (GH¢2,000), Finatrade (CCTC) who also gave out bags of rice, oil and GH¢500, Frankcopart Ghana Limited which donated eight cartons of chicken, Eneha foods presented GH¢500 plus food items as well as White Lane Gh ltd who also added GH¢500.

Achimota School also deserves special mention. Apart from providing the fields for the tournament and offering free catering services, the august school also provided their dormitories for usage by the boys which massively cut costs that would have been incurred on hotel accommodation. This was helped by the fact that the players were aged 13 and below and were more used to such atmosphere but that can hardly be possible when we host a Seniors’ event in the future.

Achimota School is also the only venue with multiple pitches across the country as the association targets building and improving on facilities for the sport. Achimota are developing a third pitch in addition to the two already available. Legon and Obuasi in the Ashanti Region provide the two other recognised pitches but Mr. Vanderpuije-Orgle affectionately called Van Pee, says the association is keen to create as many fields in as many schools possible. “In every High School where there is some land available, we will encourage them to build pitches for the sport, then we can take the development from there,” said Van Pee

So how is the association and the sport of Cricket run in Ghana if they get no support from government? It is a question that needs answering by the Sports Ministry and also why they have omitted Cricket from their ten prioritised sporting disciplines. Support, financially, technically and morally have come and continue to come from South Africa who are a top nation in international cricket having also won the Cricket World Cup. But it is not enough and cannot be enough if Ghana is to end up in the brackets of competing Test Nations which undoubtedly must be the target in the next ten to twenty years.

The International Cricket Council have also promised to provide more funds and equipment in support of the sport in Ghana if we are able to build competitive female sides to complement the already excelling male teams. So development and spread of the love for and playing of the game especially in females must begin at once. Achimota School currently has the only female team honing the skills of the game but Van Pee and the association plan to extend the game to every corner of this country.

Unlike what you will hear from the corridors of many sporting disciplines in Ghana aside football, the media have earned the praise of the Ghana Cricket Association. “We say thank you to the media for their attention and coverage. They have helped tremendously because radio, TV and newspaper attention was good,” Van Pee graciously admits. He added: “When we play the game in the Achimota bush, if not for the media, nobody would have heard of it. It’s not much but they are doing good and we encourage others to join in.”

Cricket may be out of the government’s priority list for now but Van Pee remains very optimistic of that situation changing soon. “Complete lack of funds and support is sad indeed but we know the potential we have and we will not be dispirited. We will continue to work hard and when they realise the success stories, they will need no cajoling to come to our aid,” the Ghana Cricket Association boss reposes defiantly.

Already, the association have begun programmes aimed at developing Cricket in schools by acquiring some equipment for distribution. The equipment is very scarce but the association have started distribution to about twenty schools across the country with the aim to extend the gesture to other places.

Senior players are also to be deployed to the various regions and schools to help in teaching and training potential Cricket players for the eventual benefit of Ghana. These seniors will have to be provided with accommodation and allowances in order to also fully discharge their duties and set targets. What they need is government and corporate support. The ball is in your court again, Mr. Mohammed Mubarak Munkata.