Schickerling said that according to the National Sport Policy, such a facility falls under the Windhoek Municipality and the local government, but despite repeated enquiries and requests by the NHU, they had received no feedback.

"The first request was made in 1980, which was five years after artificial turfs had been implemented in South Africa.

So we are now lacking behind the rest of the hockey world by 30 years, because there seems to be total inaction by the Windhoek Municipality," he said.

"It is disturbing that facilities for a specific sport code are being erected all over Namibia, but the facilities for hockey are hopelessly inadequate.

Since we don't have an artificial turf we will not be able to attract hockey playing nations because they don't play on grass, while our national teams cannot prepare adequately for international competitions," he added.

Schickerling was speaking at the sponsorship by Omina Supplies for the field hockey league which starts in Windhoek this Saturday, May 17.

Omina Supplies will sponsor the field league for the second year in a row to an amount of N$25 000.

They also sponsored the 2008 Indoor Hockey League which was concluded last month, with Unam winning the men's Premier League title and Windhoek Old Boys the women's Premier League title.

Schickerling thanked the managing director of Omina Supplies, Peter Davidson for their sponsorship, saying that their investment over the past few years had enabled the NHU to run a formal development program in Katutura, while hockey had become a fully integrated sport code.

"Thanks to the contributions of companies such as Omina Supplies.

We are now a properly integrated sports code; our national sides are selected purely on merit and are truly representative of the demographics of our society and includes players from all spheres of society," he said.

Davidson also called for the implementation of an artificial turf, saying that it had become essential to attract foreign teams to Namibia, as well as to raise the standard of the local game.

"An artificial turf will cost about N$5 million.

I call on other companies to invest in it and demonstrate their social responsibility to the game of hockey," he said.

Walter Haseb of the Namibia Sport Commission applauded Omina Supplies for their investment in hockey, saying that sport codes struggled to obtain sponsorships nowadays.

"We call on sport codes in Namibia to be transparent so that other companies will be able and willing to sponsor sport codes," he said.

Namibia Sport

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