Communication gremlins delay AYG preparations

Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) is reported to have left sport codes in the lurch this past week when they sought assistance to prepare for the Africa Youth Games (AFG) billed for July 19th in Algeria. With only two weeks left before the games, BNOC is alleged to have told all sporting codes that preparatory games towards the AYG should be put on hold pending a final decision from the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC) committing to budgetary issues. This meant that all codes that had planned preparatory activities for the weekend had to cancel. The announcement caught some sport codes off guard as some of them intended to travel across borders. According to sources in some codes that have been affected, the communication between associations and the BNOC was poor. They argued that BNOC never bothered to alert them on the challenges they were facing with the Ministry.  Instead they did not communicate well in time. “We were shocked to receive news to stop with the preparations yet some of us were already in Gaborone because not all of us reside in town,” said the concerned source. According to the source, the situation inconvenienced their plans as they were left without answers and they found it hard to explain to the affected athletes. More to that, the teams are made up of school going children and some of them were forced to miss classes while preparing for trips that never happened. Reached for comment, BNOC Chief Executive Officer Tuelo Serufho conceded that they experienced delays on their side. However, he said all pending logistics have been sorted, “Preparations will go on as scheduled, we have made minor adjustments and I can confidently confirm that some codes have travelled to South Africa early this week while some will depart during the week,” Serufho said. Serufho said the BNOC   is hoping that no permanent damage was done given that the delay was for a day or two. He revealed that the final team list heading to Algeria would be finalised and announced tomorrow (Thursday).