Centre of origin rule slammed

By HENRY MORABANG
A SOFTBALL administrator has slammed the decision by the Papua New Guinea Softball Federation to allow players to return to represent their centre of origin at the national championships.
Francis Dakeni said it was a bad decision because it defeated the whole purpose of players’ registration with local associations in order for them to play softball.
He said secondly it was unfair to players in local associations to compete for spots with players from another association. The local player is essentially denied their right to represent their local association to whom they were registered with.
“There is basically no reward for players at local association level and it takes away their chance of attending big tournaments and developing from those experiences,’ Dakeni said.
Dakeni said only Port Moresby women prohibited its players not to play for other centres if they had first registered with Port Moresby women’s softball association.
“If the PNG Softball Federation continues this arrangement, they should consider my submission made several years ago to allow softballers to represent provinces where softball is not played competitively.
“I challenged the softball federation on that but there has been no response on that,” he said.
Dakeni said there had been much talk about promoting and advancing the code but on this instance, this whole concept of a national championship was defeated when rules undermined the development of players.
Dakeni called on local association to use their own players instead of recruiting Port Moresby-based players.
“Don’t deny the your local players the right to represent your local association with pride.
“Your players have been loyal to your associations, so please show some faith in their abilities to play well for you.
“Don’t rely on someone from the outside to do the job for you.”