By Uwumarogie Peter
Gombe, – Mr Halilu Teli, Chairman, Sports Writers’ Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Gombe State Chapter, has urged the National Sports Commission (NSC) to discover young talents to succeed Aruna Quadri, the best tennis player in Africa.
Teli gave the advice in Gombe on Thursday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
NAN reports that the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) had on July 2, ranked Aruna Quadri 20th in the world, thus displacing Omar Assar as Africa’s best rated player.
Teli said the sports commission ought to discover more Quadris now before it is too late, and that Nigeria had many talents yet to be discovered at the grassroots.
He said Aruna Quadri was the global face of Nigerian sports as a result of his consistent international record at the Olympics and other professional tournaments.
According to him, one of the problems of sports in Nigeria is that ministries at the federal and state levels focus on football to the detriment of other sports.
“Government at all levels must start developing tennis players from grassroots.
“The National Sports Commission must look inwards with a view to replacing Aruna Quadri now and not wait for him to retire.
“If we do nothing now, we may not get another Quadri in a long while because he will not be around forever.
“The biggest problem of sports in Nigeria is the fact that we focus on football while ignoring other sports.
“This is not good for a country with huge potential in tennis, volleyball and basketball. If government puts in place facilities and modalities in no time we would get another Quadri,” he said.
He appealed to private organisations to assist the government to develop other sports in the country as part of their corporate social responsibility.