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| Jacob Kutau |
How did you begin handball?
I started handball as a young boy in the
barracks in Maiduguri. I attended the Army Children School in
Maiduguri. My father was playing handball for the military team. I
started handball accidentally, because the day I took interest in it, I
was late to school and couldn’t go to my class because my class teacher
would beat me. I had to lie that I was at the handball court to avoid
punishment. I was given the ball and since I’m a left-hander, which is
not common in handball. The coach picked interest in me but after that
day I ran away from training. But with time, after the team had
succeeded in various competitions, I returned to the sport and got the
support of my father.
You play for Maccabi Rehovot in the Israeli Premier League. What are your targets for next season?
We just got promoted to the Premiership
from the second division and my target is to retain that spot. We will
work hard to win trophies but we have told ourselves that we don’t want
to return to the second division for a long time.
As an officer with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, how do you combine playing abroad and being an officer?
The Civil Defence gives us the liberty
to pursue our careers as sportsmen but we are always required to come
back when there are competitions. The success we record is always a
pride for the organisation and as such they support us in every way they
can.
How will you compare handball in Europe to Africa?
Africa, especially Nigeria, has the
potential for the sport, more than Europe, but they have the facilities
with which they process the materials they have, which is what we lack
in Nigeria. They catch their players from a young age and take them
through the basics of the sport. There are not many children who want to
play the sport over there as to what obtains here, where many people
are willing to play but can’t find the required facilities to develop.
If we can grow young talents, the glory days will soon be back.
Nigeria has been banned by
the Confederation of African Handball for failing to pay their
membership fees. How do you think this will affect the sport in the
country?
A ban is never a good thing for any
sport anywhere in the world. The ban is really going to affect the
country’s participation in competitions. The women are supposed to go to
the Nations Cup soon but if this ban is not lifted, it will stop them
from the tournament. The teams haven’t had enough competitions and the
few we go to will surely suffer if the ban is not lifted. I will appeal
to the right people to ensure that the right thing is done for the ban
to be lifted.
The men’s team have not
been doing quite well recently. The most recent outing was your
fourth-placed finish at the 2015 All Africa Games, how did you feel
losing the bronze medal?
It was a painful thing to lose such an
important match. We defeated Angola in the group stages but we were
technically beaten in the semifinals by the same team. We were wrongly
informed that our match was in the night, whereas the game was in the
afternoon. We had to rush out of our lodge and rush to the venue. Of
course we arrived late. Since we weren’t even in match mode. It really
affected our psyche and we lost 19-13 to the same people we had earlier
beaten. So the bronze medal match was really fought for but the team’s
psyche was still low and we subsequently lost.
The team also did not do
well at the Egypt 2016 CAHB African Men’s Handball Championship and
failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. How do you feel about not
going to Brazil?
I feel very bad about that because the
Olympics is a very big stage where every player wants to showcase their
talents and bring back honour to their country. Participating in the
Olympics alone is a big honour for the players. A lot is really wrong
with handball in the country at the moment and it is really painful that
with the current crops of players we have, Nigeria would have done
really well in Brazil. The team we have at the moment, which is made up
of good players from the foreign and local scenes, could be compared to
the team which won gold for Nigeria at the 2003 All African Games in
Abuja. The Nations Cup really didn’t go as we wanted it to go given that
historically, we haven’t had a really good outing at the competition
(Nigeria’s best outing at the African Men’s Championship was a fourth-
place finish in South Africa in 1998).
Since the Africa
Championships, the national team have yet to take part in any
competition, except the last Sam Ocheho. What do you think can be done
to get more activities for the players?
The future of handball currently lies in
the hands of the ex-internationals, those who have played the game for
the country and know how it really feels to be active. People like Sam
Ocheho and a man called Abubakar, who sponsored the experimental Premier
League this year in the North, are doing their best for the sport and
want the best for players in the country. They need more others to
bring more competitions to the players. When there are enough
competitions at home, say within a space of three to four months
interval, those of us based abroad can also come home and take part in
them and through these, the national team will be the better for it
because the players will be active and the ticket to the next Olympics
will be delivered.
Have you ever regretted playing handball?
No, I have never regretted doing this
sport. Handball has given me the best of opportunities I have ever had
in life and that is why it pains me to see it the way it is in the
country. The first time I will travel out of this country is through
handball. It has taken me to countries like Libya, Qatar and Saudi
Arabia. So I don’t regret it at all.
What do you think can be done to make the Handball Federation of Nigeria league achieve national status for?
Having a league in the country is a
fantastic idea but I believe that for it to have the desired impact,
every stakeholder must work together. The administrators and
ex-internationals, who really have the interest of the sport at heart,
should come together and get sponsors to back the league. When the
league is truly national, the players will really put in more effort and
the sport will relay grow.
In the early 80s and 90s,
we had more players playing abroad than at home but the trend has
fallen now. How can we return to those days?
Apart from I and Obinna Patrick, Kalu
Phillips and a few others, there are not many Nigerian players outside
the country. Nigerian players need to play more competitions to
enable scouts to come into the country for players. That was how I
left the country in 2008. More and frequent competitions will allow
scouts to see our players and sign them up.
Your Nigerian team, De
Defenders, recently won the Sam Ocheho/Injoo Invitational Handball
Championship. How would you describe the victory?
Winning any competition at all comes
with a great feeling anytime and anywhere. That was how I felt when we
won that competition in June. I will like to thank the organisers and
sponsors of that tournament. It is a thing of pride to have such a
competition around as it gives us the hope that handball will become
great again in the nearest future.
You are an overseas-based player, how does it feel playing in such a tournament here at home?
That competition was above our
expectations as professional players. I am proud to have played in it.
The standard was very high and it can only get better because I was told
that it really improved from the first and second editions. Some of us
that are based abroad and who participated in the 2016 Sam Ocheho
Handball Championship are really excited because the competition is
really the future of the sport in the country. The tournament gave the
home-based players, especially the young ones, the opportunity to play
against us and they have the hope of becoming like us. The players at
the tournament were really good and exceptional and really handball has a
future in Nigeria. The competition was really tough till the last day,
for that I am really proud of such an event.
If your children choose to play handball, will you allow them?
The situation of the sport in the
country as of then would determine whether they will play it or not. If
the sport has really changed from what we have now, surely they will but
if the situation can only be described as worse, no, I won’t allow them
play handball, except for pastime. I would rather let them play
basketball, which is also close to handball.
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