Ghana’s badminton player, Leslie Addo has made a shocking revelation that he and his teammates were compelled to sit in the bucket of a pickup to transport them to the match venue to play their match in the ongoing 2023 African Games.

Addo who is a member of Ghana’s men’s doubles badminton team disclosed in an interview monitored by Ghanaweb that there was no car to transport the team to Borteyman where the games were being held.

According to him, the team had no option but to use the private pick-up vehicle owned by their coach which is a pickup. He narrated that, the space in the car was not enough, hence some of the players had to risk their lives and sit in the bucket of the car.

Lamenting the woes the team has faced, Addo said, “You guys have not supported us.”

He added, “Today when we were coming to play our matches, we sat in our coach's vehicle and it was a pickup, so most of us were in the bucket. We didn’t get any transport. We the host nation, playing for the country and no one is supporting us.”

The Office of the Minister of Youth and Sports rented 332 vehicles which included 29 Landcruisers, 3 Toyota Prado’s, 106 Saloon Cars, 78 Wagon Cars, 55 Team Marco Polo Buses, 30 Ayalolo buses, 26 minibuses and 5 trucks for the 2023 African Games.

The badminton player who spoke to JoySports also fumed at how the team has been neglected.

He noted that he was given a 36 shoes instead of size 47. He also added that the team did not get the pleasure of even training with the equipment such as rackets which the state bought for them.

“The equipment that we got, didn’t come on time. Nobody has even trained with the equipment. The racket I used to play the tournament, I got it yesterday and I never tested it. The shoe I wear is size 47 and they gave me size 36, what am I going to use it for?,” Leslie Addo quizzed.

‘We sat in the bucket of our coach’s pickup to go to the Borteyman Sports Complex for our matches’ - Ghanaian badminton player, Leslie Addo#JoySports | #AfricanGames pic.twitter.com/p6VQGUoEDE

— #JoySports (@JoySportsGH) March 9, 2024