CHENNAI: On November 9, South Africa’s men’s hockey coach, Garreth Ewing, took to Twitter to shine a light on the underfunded hockey programme in their country. “Our hardworking luggage has finally given up,” he posted. “The @SA_Hockey_Men are in need of three large suitcases for the storage and transport of equipment. If you’re able to help, please DM me.” He had posted a picture — a big suitcase that’s clearly past its expiry date — with the tweet.
Since then, the SA men’s hockey programme have scored a major victory in the form of partnering with matchkit, a fintech solutions company that has helped the side crowdfund their way to the Olympics. Even if the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), their National Olympic Committee (NOC) will foot their flight charges to Tokyo, that’s where the funding stops. That is clearly not a helpful solution for a team that aspires to surprise quite a few sides in Tokyo.
Ewing picks up the story from how the situation was in November to now. “It’s (men’s hockey) a very amateur programme in SA,” he tells The New Indian Express. “We have zero budget, players are always under constant pressure financially and we try our best to make sure they don’t pay anything out of their pockets. About six months ago, I posted a note on social media, saying we are looking for opportunities (for sponsors to get in touch with us). That’s when Mike (Sharman, co-founder of matchkit) sent me a message.”
That message quickly grew into a meeting over coffee where both parties agreed to give it a try. “All of our players, myself and my support staff were given digital profiles on matchkit. That’s enabled us to drive this crowdfund over the last four-five months. That money will go towards our preparation for the Games.”
Since SASCOC doesn’t give them money to fund training camps or buy basic training equipment like balls, you can argue that without matchkit, the team will have been undercooked. “For example, our next two week camp in South Africa is from the money we have raised on the platform,” Ewing explains. “It’s helped us buy 100 new balls. Not just that, it will help pay for the travelling costs of all players. As far as Tokyo is concerned, it could allow us to take a few extra support staff as well as reserve players.” In fact, it’s so underfunded they need money to even conduct Covid tests for the players.
How does it work? Ewing sends a link of the fundraising page on matchkit. It’s aptly titled ‘SA Hockey’s Tokyo Olympic dream’. The short accompanying note says: “We as the South African Men’s Hockey team need to raise between R3.5m to R5m (approximately 1.8 to 2.69 cr) to get to the Tokyo Olympics. Please consider making a donation (via PayPal) below. All members of the SA men’s side have similar pages. Money raised will sit in a central account, which will 100% be used towards preparing for Tokyo.
Sharman explains a bit about the platform including why he co-founded the platform (South African World Cup winning rugby player Bryan Habana is another founder). “We created matchkit at the start of lockdown last year to help athletes better commercialise their careers. Events were being placed on hold... that’s were athletes make money in terms of appearance fees, endorsements and so on. We knew lockdown wouldn’t just be a matter of few weeks.
“Hockey in our market is seen as a Cinderella sport. It doesn’t get the plaudits cricket and rugby get. It has to work that much harder for every cent. It’s a good sport to invest in. It’s an affluent sport but at the same time in SA, in the past it may have been a dominant sport around white males. Nowadays, it is truly integrated and diverse.”
In effect, Sharman says matchkit (which has also tied up with the US Swimming team to provide similar support) is a ‘digital CV’.
It’s also doubling up as a useful tool to help 18 men prepare for their dream of playing in the sport’s ultimate theatre: the Olympics. In 2016, they missed out even though they had qualified. SASCOC did not send them. Five years later, SASCOC has green lit their participation and the team are going the extra mile to be prepared.