ARUA CITY SPORTSMEN DECRY NEGLECT OF OTHER SPORT DISCIPLINES

Arua RCC Charles Ichogor (in yellow) and other city leaders while handing over the cricket
trophies on Wednesday. Photo by Morish Dramadri.

By Morish Dramadri

Arua city

Sports lovers in Arua city have appealed for consideration of neglected sport disciplines in schools so as to identify the potential talent of the learners in them and promote their talents.

This revelation was made during the official hand over of the regional cricket tournament trophies to the players from the two schools of Oli parents and Anyafiyo primary schools who emerged victorious in the tournament played in Gulu city this year.

Cricket is a game played with a ball and bat by two sides of usually 11 players each on a large field centering upon two wickets each defended by a batsman.
Hamza Yunus Godi the West Nile regional coordinator for cricket criticized the little attention given to cricket in most schools in the region.

“Some of these sports are neglected in our region, people focus on only football and netball, handball, volleyball and cricket they are not taking them seriously not knowing that there are also others who have talents in those disciplines that can also take them very far , let's treat other sports equally,” Yunus lamented.

Since the introduction of cricket in primary schools in Arua city in 2013, only 12 schools have so far acquired cricket equipment and fewer than five schools are participating in the game across the city.

Arua central division sports officer Ronald Candia appealed for the promotion of cricket in schools within the city. “Let's promote this sports, we have good number of children we should not only focus on football, our biggest challenge here is the discipline of the learners especially in secondary schools, since we have the talent here, we really need to sensitize the public to make sure that discipline is observed during sports,” Candia enticed.

Over the years, Arua city sports department has been struggling with inadequate finance to facilitate sporting activities in the city especially at regional and national levels.

Arua resident city commissioner Charles Ichogor therefore directed the city council to have a reasonable budget for sports in their budget. “I would like to urge the city council to make sure that you add a reasonable budget for games and sports within Arua city, I have had an experience wherever there are games and sports, it is left in the hands of some individual schools, advocate for a budget to support these sports, as you are budgeting include games and sports,” Ichogor directed.