-Kambwili seeks Cuban sports aid

Minister of Youth and Sport Chishimba Kambwili says Zambia needs to learn detailed sports management skills in order to develop all related disciplines in the country.

Kambwili said government has for a long time now been offering lip-service to Zambians regarding plans to give equal sponsorship and opportunity to all sporting disciplines.

This is against a widespread notion that government has only been paying attention to the sport of football in Zambia.

He said government must now shift attention from mere promises of commitment to developing all sports disciplines to getting into result oriented action of promoting all games in Zambia.

Kambwili was speaking in Havana, Cuba yesterday when he visited the Cuba National School of Volleyball.

Kambwili said he was impressed with the level of attention and commitment the Cuban government and its citizens were paying to various sporting activities noting that this has enabled the country excel in different disciplines.

“We are impressed with the way you have tabulated sports in schools in Cuba. It is important that as children learn academic subjects, they also learn sport,” he said.

Kambwili was amazed that Cuba has institutions that are specifically tailored to train people, especially the youth, in various sporting activities.

He recollected that volleyball was once a famous sport in Zambia when various companies such as the government owned mines were sponsoring it.

The minister however expressed sadness that volleyball lost its fame in Zambia when the mines were privatized.

“But now we want to pay attention to this sport (volleyball),” he said.

Kambwili has appealed to Cuba to provide technical expertise to Zambia in training and developing various sports activities in the country.

And president of the Cuba Volleyball Federation (F.C.V) Professor Eugenio George acknowledged the potential of Zambian youth to learn and excel in the game of volleyball.

George said the talent found in Africa and particularly Zambia can help in developing volleyball once young people receive the right type of  training.

He has since pledged his federation’s willingness to share Cuba’s technical expertise with Zambia in order to improve volleyball standards in the country.

Cubans have an excellent sports participation which has made the country win regional, continental, intercontinental and world volleyball tournaments at various levels for over 28 times.

Currently, the country already has national teams intensifying training for the Olympic tournament in Brazil in 2016, 2020 and 2024 in different fields of sport.

Kambwili, his Permanent Secretary Anges Musunga, National Sports Council of Zambia (NSCZ) chairman Chifumu Banda, chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Youth Affairs and Sports, Levy Ngoma and Chief Sports Development Officer in the Ministry of Youth and Sport, Gibson Muyaule are in Cuba to visit various sports schools.

Yesterday, Kambwili visited the anti-doping centre, the national volleyball school, national gymnastics school and the Manuel Fajardo University of Physical culture and Sports Applies Sciences.

He is scheduled to tour international physical education and sport school, Giraldo Cordova Cardin higher school for the training of high performance athletes and Mario Lopez national football school and other sports medicines and physical training institutions.

The climax of Kambwili and his delegation’s visit to Cuba will be the signing of a sport cooperation agreement between Zambia and Cuba on Friday this week.

Kambwili was invited by the Cuba Institute of Sports and Recreation to revitalize the sports cooperation agreement which was signed in 2007 between the governments of the two countries.