Kenya Roll Ball coach eyes bright future

Martin Abunde who guided the men and women national roll ball teams to World Cup success in India last year says there is more to come from the two sides.

Abunde said with plans underway to introduce the sport to schools this year, they will have a huge pool to pick players from enabling them to churn out more talent.

“Playing at the World Cup and winning it last year was a good experience considering we went through so many challenges to achieve it. Getting to India itself was a miracle in the first place and winning just made it so great for us,” he said.

He added: "After our glory in India, plans are ongoing to build a large database of players so that when we assemble as a national team it will not just be specific players who are called up but rather we have a robust pool all around to pick from.”

He revealed that plans are already underway to introduce roll ball popularly played in higher institutions of learning to schools, something he believes will make it popular and also help expose players at a much younger age than is happening at the moment.

“This way we can compete easily with a country like India where the sport is played from the lower classes in school,” he revealed.

He admitted that both teams will now be under pressure going into any competition after their triumph in India last year.

AFCON 2023: Ghanaian disarray! A Black Stars fan arrested for trying to fight coach Hughton

“Becoming a champion is the easy part but maintaining such status is the difficult part. That is where we find ourselves at the moment. Every tournament we go to we will always be under pressure because everyone will be coming at us.”

The team will take part in the regional and continental championships scheduled for this year.