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Hand games hardly hit the headlines

 

Not much was achieved in the hand games for the year 2013 largely due to the lack of funds and proper planning relative to managers of these sports.

The only meaningful international engagement was the one involving the national under-19 handball team at the Confederation of Africa Handball (CAHB) / International Handball Federation (IHF) ZONE 3 tournament in Burkina Faso.

The team placed fourth and according to Nortey Dowuona, vice chairman of the Handball Association of Ghana (HAG), the inadequate preparation, the lack of equipment and funds conspired against the campaign of the team which eventually failed to get into the medal zone.

These setbacks notwithstanding, the Greater Accra Handball League, thrived to give the sport a face-saving image while the Police Service men’s and the Prison’s Service women’s teams emerged winners in their respective categories .

Beach-handball was also introduced into the country for the first time this year. The newly formed national beach handball team  beat their Togolese counterparts 2-0 (15-12,13-11) in the final Zone III qualifiers to lift the cup in the Africa qualifiers of the beach handball tournament played in Lome, Togo.

The team thus qualified to represent ZONE III in the final zonal qualifiers for the World Beach Handball Championship in Dusseldorf, Germany, next year.

Volleyball: Qualified for World championships.

Ghana’s volleyball team won gold medal at the Men's African Pool D qualifiers for the 2014 World Championship at the end of the three-nation round tournament held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

In the female national volleyball team edged closer to the women’s World Cup next year when they took gold in  the six- nation ZONE 3 qualifiers in Burkina Faso a few weeks ago.

The team is left with just two more qualifiers  to compete in their first ever World Cup.

Beach-Volleyball was one of the most decorated and participated sport in 2013. The game gained much popularity along the shores of La beach, Tema beach and Cape Coast beach where the competitions were held by the Ghana Volleyball Association to select players for the national team.

Cricket: Rocked by age-cheating scandal

In Cricket, the national under-19 team participated in the Africa Cricket Association (ACA)/International Cricket Council (ICC) Africa World Division 2 tournament in South Africa.

Although the team won the competition, they were eventually disqualified by the ICC for fielding over-aged players after several protests were made to the ICC after the tournament.

The senior national cricket team travelled to Dares-Salem, Tanzania, to compete in  the ACA/ICC-sanctioned tournament but lost out on the medal zone and placed fifth .

The Diwali Cricket Tournament was also staged this year. The annual tournament organised by the Indian Community is a family festival celebrated by indians in the month of October and November.

The Indian community in Ghana, the sponsors of the game will hope that  with the yearly organisation of the Diwali Cricket Cup, the profile of cricket in Ghana will increase.

 

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