We need concrete plan of action before bidding for major championships

So President Mwai Kibaki has challenged local sports federations to bid for and host international championships in the country.

President Kibaki has noted that such endeavours will market the country as a world sporting nation thus attracting sports tourism and inspiring Kenyan youth to get more involved in sports. That is well and good.

For his information though, this country has been regularly hosting international championships.

The Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup and Cecafa Club Championships, Africa Volleyball Championship, Kenya Open golf tournament, Confederation of African Rugby Championship, ICC Knock-out Trophy and the African Hockey Championship quickly come to mind.

We have even hosted a World Cross Country Championship and African Athletic championship.

I sense what the President had in mind was having a mega sporting event coming to Kenya, like the multi-disciplinary Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and All Africa Games or single-sport like the Fifa World Cup, African Cup of Nations and the Sevens Rugby World Cup.

Biggest event Kenya has hosted

Nairobi, by the way, hosted the All Africa Games in 1987. This was and still is the biggest international sporting event Kenya has hosted and its powerful legacy survives.

Moi International Sports Centre came into being because of these games. It is our largest and most modern (despite its ageing state) sporting facility, boasting a 60,000 capacity stadium with an eight-lane running track, an Olympic-size indoor pool, 5,000 capacity multi-purpose gymnasium and a 108-room hotel.

This impressive facility was initiated and funded by the government for the purpose of the 1987 Games and cost millions of dollars, which brings me to the point I want drive home.

Hosting a major championship will need tangible action from the government in terms of policy and investment.

For starters, just putting up a bid would cost millions of shillings and would require the input of the sports fraternity, relevant arms of government, local councils and specialists.

Putting up the infrastructure would cost much more. It is not enough for successive sports ministers and even the Prime Minister to say, without batting an eyelid and without any plan of action, that Kenya should bid to host Olympics, Fifa World Cup and Nations Cup.

How I wish President Kibaki could say: “It is about time Kenya hosted a mega sporting event.

My government has put aside Sh20 billion to be used over the next four years to build a modern sports complex in Nairobi and three other stadiums in major towns together with the necessary infrastructure.

“I am also constituting a presidential commission to work on Kenya’s bid to host the 2018 All Africa Games and the 2017 African Cup of Nations.”

Now, that would be something. Simply standing on a national podium to encourage federations to bid is paying lip service to an unimpressed sporting fraternity.

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Vivian Cheruiyot did not lose a single race she competed in last season. She won the World Cross Country Championships, the 10,000m and 5,000m World Championship and the 5,000/3,000m Diamond League crown.

But this was not good enough to impress the IAAF who last week went on to crown Australian Sally Pearson (with just the world 100m hurdles under her belt) Female Athlete of the Year. I do not get it.