The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
FORMER How Mine coach, Bekithemba “Super” Ndlovu is ruing the missed opportunity of taking charge of a Premiership side, following the sudden demise of the club.
How Mine’s dance in the Premier Soccer League came to an abrupt end last week when sponsors, Bulawayo Mining Company announced football was no longer part of their corporate social responsibility programme. Super had already assembled a squad which he hoped was going to do duty for him as he sought to establish himself in local coaching circles.
After being an assistant to Kelvin Kaindu for years, Ndlovu was eager to prove he has come of age and can take on the best in local football. A dejected Ndlovu said he was still bewildered at the sudden decision, saying that BMC were insensitive in the way they handled the matter.
“For the past two months I have been working hard assembling a squad, convincing players to ditch their teams and come to us then we are just told the team won’t be there this season. I was looking at growing as a coach this year because of this new experience but it looks like it will be a year of regression because I am likely to spend the better part of the year on the sidelines of the game.
The timing was just bad as we are left with a week before the start of the PSL and where do they expect us to go now, teams have already made plans, hired coaches and recruited players,” he said.
Ndlovu said it would not be easy picking up the pieces with the technical bench and most players are likely to sit it out for a while before they can find slots in other teams. He said besides looking forward to taking charge of the defunct side, Super had closed doors on some clubs who had expressed their interest in his signature. Ndlovu said he felt management could have announced the decision late last year rather than wait for the league start to inch closer.
“This is not the type of decision that would be made all of a sudden so I don’t understand why they waited so long before they told us the football team was not part of their plans this year. Players were asked to sign contracts just less than a fortnight ago and now they are being told the team is no more.
It’s a struggle securing teams even if BMC is going to honour the remainder of the contracts, being outside football is a big disadvantage if you are a player of coach,” he said.
Super said the move is bad for the image of the local game and believes PSL and Zifa should not have allowed a team to withdraw within days before the start of the season but should be given a cut off time to decide on their participation in the league. He cited Bantu Rovers who announced clear changes in their structure last year before the season ended allowing players to make plans in the off season.
