STADIUM A TRUE REFLECTION OF ZIM SITUATION

HARARE - The pathetic sight of the National Sports Stadium (NSS) during the 29th celebrations of Zimbabwe's political independence from British rule held at the weekend easily summed up the country's desparate need for foreign aid. Writes Simba Nembaware

The epitome of the country's annual event is a free soccer match and for this reason hordes of Zimbabweans trek to the stadium to enjoy themselves. But on sunday there was no amusement as both Njube Sundowns and Dynamos players failed to string decent passes between them thanks to a bumpy turfless pitch.

The 60 000 seater Chinese built stadium that has been shut for renovations because of its cracking walls and terraces, resembled a backyard playground in some war ravaged country in west africa. During the renovations the turf at NSS has been terribly neglected and this was visible on sunday as there were scattered and isolated patches of turf meaning that players ran most of the time on bare soil.

Viewers around the world who cared to join Zimbabwe in its celebrations and watched the proceedings via DSTV saw the reason why the country that has great footballing talent has failed to perform at regional tournaments even at the African Cup of Nations. The national broadcaster ZTV failed to provide broadcasting equipment for the event and they had to make do with equipment from CricketZimbabwe. Just like ZTV, CricketZimbabwe's broadcast of the event was of poor quality.

Part of the renovations that are being done by a Chinese contractor include installing a new giant screen and improving the public address system. With Rufaro stadium and the little used mucheke stadium inMasvingo under artificial turf one can only assume that the national stadium will also have artificial turf laid on it. The Zimbabwe Football Assoiation hopes that the stadium would be ready in time for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.