By Prince Dornu-Leiku

I have been forced to come out on the plight of the so-called ‘lesser known sports’ after taking the pain to follow on the progress of Basketball in this country. That is why I am writing this piece from the perspective of Basketball though I am convinced the same applies to several other sporting disciplines in Ghana. In the coming weeks, watch this space for more assessment of the various sports disciplines plus the attention and development they get in this country.

It has been said over and over again that sports in Ghana is all about football and we all know this is true. So if new Sports Minister Alhaji Munkata Mubarak says he wants to change that, then we applaud the energy, support and commitment so far put into the hosting of the African Nations Championship of Hockey later this year.

We all hope that will not be the end and ‘others’ will also get a piece of the cake. Starting with Basketball. Yes Basketball. This is because the Greater Accra Regional Basketball League, the only competitive league for the sport in this country, commences just this week. And yet not many have heard of it, even the Minister we are not sure. But what I know is that Basketball is a hugely exciting and marketable sport with lots of potential both business-wise and sport-wise.

As one of the many football enthusiasts in Ghana, it may be a surprise but I have found love in a different sport. I have fallen deep in love with the sport of Basketball having followed the American NBA since last year. After watching the NBA play-off final between the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics, amid the excitement and comebacks, I just could not forgive myself for not patronizing Basketball all these years. After the Celtics edged the Lakers whom I supported, the wait for the beginning of the current season was just too suspenseful for me. But it came back and the excitement and intensity has continued, though many a time it has been a battle between sleep and my desire to watch since most of the NBA games kick-off past midnight Ghana time.

No lack of talents

But if Basketball in America and many other countries including Angola excites so much, why not Ghana? That is the question I posed to Mr. Mathias Ocloo, Organiser of the Greater Accra Regional Basketball Association. “It is lack of facilities and resources, the National Sports Council have no (Basketball) courts. Only private ownership of courts which are very expensive to use. We have the talents, the height in abundance but how can we develop them to high standards? We have to pay about GH¢1,000 every time to use these private courts, no camping facilities, transport or allowances, so how can we organize the game?” he posed a question back.

Mr. Ocloo needn’t argue further. There used to be two Basketball courts within the erstwhile Accra Sports Stadium now christened Ohene Djan. Refurbishment and supposed upgrade of facilities as Ghana got ready to host last year’s CAF African Cup of Nations rather resulted in the Basketball courts been chopped off. So it was with the Volleyball courts too. Why? No real explanations were given as the issue appeared to have rather been swept under the carpet. The media also failed to highlight it, as they would if it were football.

The media, both Mathias Ocloo and Saka Quaye, General Secretary to the national Basketball as well as Handball associations, believe have been of great disservice to the upliftment of Basketball in Ghana. Hear Mr. Ocloo, who is also the coach of CYO, one of 14 teams getting ready for the league’s commencement: “The media are not helping at all. They go to every corner chasing football but not basketball. Even if you invite them to a basketball tournament very close to them, they won’t show up. The basketball courts were destroyed at the stadium but the media found nothing wrong so we never heard of it. The media must change and give Basketball too fair coverage. Basketball is big business and the media can help build it.”

Government support key So it has meant that Ghana fails to honour African Basketball competitions due to a blatant lack of funds. According to Mr. Ocloo, a Ghanaian team should have been out there in Nigeria now participating in a continental competition for women but no funding so the subject was not even discussed. All these against the backdrop of buzzing talents across the length and breadth of this country who are very good and ready to hone their skills.

That is why government commitment to the development of the sport cannot be underestimated. The current non-commitment, no budget allocation, non-support and low patronage has crippled the sport dear. As a matter of duty, there is no way the Sports Minister can miss the Basketball League’s opening come this Wednesday April 22 at the Prisons Courts in Osu, just about ten minutes’ drive from the Ministry. That alone will re-ignite the passions and beliefs of men like Mathias Ocloo and Saka Quaye that Basketball can help change the economy of Ghana even more than football ever has.

Another area where the Ministry can really intervene is to see to the development of the game in schools by providing the facilities and resources to empower them. Government support also means a renewed confidence in the sport by the corporate world whose sponsorship and financial commitment cannot be discounted. The government obviously cannot do it all on their own, but they should be the first in queue to show commitment and that will easily bring the business gurus with their expertise on board.

Business machine Just hear the figures of players’ salaries, contracts and endorsements in the NBA and you will be marveled. There is no need going into the details of what Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwight Howard or Dwayne Wade earn annually not to talk of their various teams and the wide network of media, marketers and businessmen connected to the game. The underline is that Basketball is a high source of revenue generation not just for the players but also everyone who has a stake in it right from the coaches, officials, agents, sponsors right up to the state making gains for the national economy.

The game’s excitement, intensity and high uncertainty also offers big corporate bodies a very big platform to market their products more than ever imagined. Media involvement and subsequent beam of live games, even recorded ones is a platform on which any business outfit cannot underestimate. This means a big market for the Ghanaian Basketball fraternity to expose and market the game to an international audience.

Sponsorships, marketing and exposure of the game will more importantly not only lead to a vast improvement and building of facilities for the sport, can only result in the honing and development of the talents in this country. A competitive national league will also produce great players for the international market as teams in NBA and Europe can’t wait to grab promising players unto their fold. And it will come at very good prices for the teams and officials who own these players. It will also without doubt trickle down into government coffers and a recycle into honing much more talents for the future.

The way forward The first steps on the way forward for this sport can only be taken by the Ministry of Sports and the National Sports Council. And that means building of facilities for the sport. Unless facilities are built, development of the sport can only retrogress. It should be an immediate target to get a national Basketball stadium and avenues of raising funds for such a venture must begin without delay. In the years to follow, we can build these facilities in the regions as and when we can raise funds.

Also important is the availing of funds to the Basketball Association. At the beginning of every year, government must give every association their subvention. That way, they know the funds available to them and plan accordingly. The situation where no support was given to the team of young players who represented Ghana in a Basketball competition in Benin over the last year, must not be repeated. In that case, there was no payment of transport fees and allowances during camping and even after participating in the tournament in the name of Ghana. That is not right.

International coaches and experts must be brought in to teach and inculcate modern techniques in order to hone the skills of the players. In the same vein, we must invest in training of our personnel to be coaches and officials for the sports. These need a lot of financial strength to be pulled off. The international coaches can even help in acquiring partnerships with some foreign teams or associations aimed at development of the sport here. It is time to rekindle the annual Invitational programmes which saw teams from America and Europe tour Ghana for Basketball games, an initiative that died down over ten years ago.

Corporate sponsorship must also intensify. Most Basketball teams across Africa are owned by multinational companies who are financially endowed to put the players and officials on their paycheque. In Nigeria, most basketball teams are owned by Banks who use the platform to market their products too. The high successes of Basketball in Angola were achieved on the wings of oil giants like Petro Athletico who also own a football side which is similarly also successful. So other sponsorship commitments cannot hinder a further extension into another sport for the many companies who sponsor especially football.

This has already worked in Ghana because most of the Basketball teams are actually owned by Services and Civilian organizations like CEPS, Prisons and others. CEPS have shown more commitment and have thus won the Basketball league most in its over 25 years of existence. The secret to CEPS’ success has been very simple: they go round to pick and recruit the best players from other teams at the end of each season, offer them employment and they play for the CEPS team. Imagine three banks, two oil companies, another two or three mining giants all supporting one team or the other, and the development of Basketball is on the rise.

Build facilities We also applaud the efforts of Yaw Sakyi, TV presenter at TV Africa who has over the past year taken Basketball into the regions and has pioneered telecast of excerpts of some of the games he has helped organized. Watching the games shown from the University of Ghana during the Hall Week celebrations of Legon Hal recently was refreshing and interesting. Credit must also go to the Coca Cola company for sponsoring most of these events courtesy their Sprite brand. Such corporate involvement can only increase if the government empowers the sport’s expansion and attraction.

But more importantly, the sport must be developed from the grassroots and the schools offer the platform to inculcate it at a very early age. Scholarships must also be made available for good players especially to the universities most of whom have two or more Basketball courts. But there is no margin for error. Better facilities must be built at all levels and the sport must be made an important feature of Senior High School sports festivals.

It is when we have done this that we can start reaping the benefits of having a competitive Basketball league and good players. We can then produce players who like Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and John Paintsil in football, will lift high the flag of Ghana in the beautiful game of Basketball. It will be then that we can all understand the excitement of this sport, why the likes of Mathias Ocloo will continue to work for the sport even without any incentives for well over thirty years and still counting. `Over to you Mr. Munkata Mubarak.