AFTER watching Nigerian teams crumble like a pack of cards at the ongoing championship in Dortmund, the Lagos State Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Wahid Oshodi, has stated the need for regular exposure of players and coaches at world tourneys.The erstwhile chairman of the Lagos State Table Tennis Association (LSTTA) told The Guardian yesterday that the teams performed fairly but for it to do better than it did in Germany, efforts must be geared toward exposing the players and coaches to top global championships.'I think we should commend the team for even competing favourably with the world's best in Germany because most of the teams that played against Nigeria attend more competitions than our teams and we should not expect much from these players,' he said.'Some of them have not been to any major competition since the last All Africa Games and even those who are playing in their various clubs hardly attend Pro Tours, which is another avenue to get exposure. We cannot also blame our coaches because we have not exposed them to competitions since all these days.'We need to support our coaches so that they can be current. It is not that we lack talents, the problem has been the inability to attend regular competitions.'Oshodi added: 'If players like Segun Toriola and Funke Oshonaike are still playing for the national team despite their long years of service to the country, this goes to show that we are not doing much to groom players of their status.'Also, I want the present-day players to learn from Toriola and Oshonaike in terms of commitment and dedication to national teams. They have shown to be good role models but despite their efforts to bring honours to the country, Toriola, Oshonaike, Monday Merotohun and Bose Kaffo have not been considered for any honour by the country and I think this alone can discourage upcoming players from being committed like them.'For now, Oshodi said that Nigeria would continue to play second fiddle to Egypt, which is now a force to reckon with in Africa and in the world. He added: 'Egypt has caught up with us and even gone ahead of us in the game and this became reality because in the past decade, they had invested in their players, with focus on their juniors.'Their youth development programme in table tennis is superb and this is what brought out the likes of Omar Assar, who is one of the best junior players in the world and the current African champion.
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