The Sunday Mail
Sir
18area.coms
THE latest craze of social media – after that of Gogo’s suicide threat – is of people advertising the unorthodox services they purportedly offer.
If your WhatsApp group did not have a joke about painting day-old chicks or showing wives their hubby’s side-chicks this past week then, you need to change the admin.
Unless it’s a church group.
But how come there is no one offering a service that can turn an uninspiring football kit into something fans would want to buy?
Last weekend I watched the ZNA Charities semi-final between Caps United and Dynamos and felt sorry for both sets of players.
The uniforms both teams were wearing, which could do with some magic wash, looked as awful as Stanley Katsande sounded on ZTV.
(We appreciate it when the national broadcaster beams local football but the powers that be at Pockets Hill must give us people who can tell the story. You cannot claim to be pioneers of local content when your soccer commentator mixes up names and the analyst hallucinates that Kallisto Pasuwa brought time-wasting tactics to Dynamos!)
Perfectly I understand where NetOne are coming from when they give a local company the tender to supply DeMbare, Makepekepe and Bosso with uniforms.
A big corporate promoting local business, buying Zimbabwean, ticks all the right boxes.
However, we won’t be doing anyone any favours if we don’t highlight that the kits could have done with a little more imagination.
A tailor-made kit must have a narrative behind it; but the ones Caps United, Dynamos and Highlanders only speak of some designer’s personal demons.
Our teams should know what they are worth and demand apparel that is befitting of their stature.
We cannot have our leading teams dressing like a sungura band that has a slot at Wake shops in Nerutanga, Buhera.
When several teams who while up time in the Bankers League dress better than the three giants who get money from NetOne deal, then you know that we are in trouble.
These days we are told that “chikuru kufema” (life is the most important thing), but just how do you breathe in such ugly uniforms?
Caps United were forced to wear the “dish towel” last year and there was a huge uproar.
Such noise is yet to get to those who kit Makepekepe because the bar has not been raised – and now DeMbare and Bosso have been added to the victims list.
And talking of Caps United, their faithful are being mocked after their team fell 0-1 to a youthful Dynamos side.
This is what they mean about winning the bragging rights, isn’t it? The licence to rub salt into the wounds of your rivals until they go to bed with their shoes on.
The blue side of Harare has a spring in its step but it’s dangerous to read much into pre-season matches.
We cannot wake up and say Method Mwanjali is over the hill because he was turned inside and out by KD, the Dynamos wonderkid.
It will be foolhardy to suggest De- Mbare are favourites for the title because their ECD class edged Caps in the pre-season tie.
I can hear some grumbling, people saying there goes a DeMbare hater, but good people don’t rule out Lloyd Chitembwe just yet.
Lodza is on to something at the Green Machine.
Never mind how they are dressing, don’t judge this book by its unimaginative cover; Caps United look like they mean business.
Yours Truly is not saying they will be champions because doing so will be disrespecting what Mafero is doing at Chicken Inn, disrespecting Mapeza, Madinda and Mutasa.
However, the financial stability that NetOne has brought and the blend that Chitembwe is working on will could make Makepekepe difficult to stop.
Sir exits the scene!
