THE performance by the national netball team at the 2019 Vitality World Cup finals in Liverpool, England, should be viewed beyond the results, to have a lasting meaning.
For the Gems, as they are affectionately known, to come eighth out of 16 teams in their debut appearance is no mean achievement.
This was against 16 of the best netball national teams of the world.
Walloping Asian Champions Sri Lanka in their opening game and going on to subdue Northern Ireland a few games later confirmed that the Gems meant business.
What is remarkable is that this was soon after the Warriors’ debacle at the AFCON Egypt 2019 campaign.
With the Gems, what came out in all their games was their never-say-die fighting spirit.
This was even against traditional giants like Australia and New Zealand.
It looks like what drove the netball team was their patriotism.
Indeed, this should always be the driving force behind any national team, once they get the honour to represent their country in any competition.
The National Anthem just before kick-off, should then do the trick.
True, there is nothing wrong with players expecting to get some monetary rewards for their effort.
But this should never supersede the desire to put one’s country first.
Right from the preparations, as the Gems readied for the historic occasion, the girls were never pampered with any lavish lifestyles.
Everything was very modest.
Even on the field of play, the Gems remained committed to their cause, even after recording very impressive results.
We never heard of them demanding monetary rewards to match their achievement.
Back home, fans remained solidly behind their team, even in cases where they were crushed by teams like Australia and New Zealand.
They were satisfied the Gems had done their best.
We salute them for the patriotism they exhibited in spite of everything else.
Their achievement, against all odds, is indeed a milestone that should inspire all other sporting disciplines in the country.
And this should include football as well
This is against the background of the recent ill-fated Warriors’ AFCON campaign in Egypt.
Today we are less concerned about the Warriors’ poor results in Egypt but more about their attitude throughout their campaign.
The complete absence of patriotism is not only glaring but also quite disturbing.
As with the national netball team, monetary rewards cannot, and should never, be ignored, but these should not take precedence over patriotism.
Unlike with the Gems, with the Warriors, there were concerted efforts to raise cash to ensure they were rewarded financially as an extra incentive.
But then, we heard of instances when games were almost abandoned before kick-off because, it seems, to the Warriors, money was above everything else.
Initially, fans were solidly behind their Warriors, but soon parted ways because of their apparent obsession with cash incentives.
We are not exonerating their administrators for possible false promises.
However, the love of one’s country should have seen the Warriors shelve money problems and prefer to put their country first.
May be, they should study the attitude of the Gems before their next assignments.
But this is not to say national teams should be exploited willy-nilly.
We expect the girls netball national team to be rewarded handsomely for their recent exploits at the recent Netball World Cup in Liverpool.
They deserve it!