By Duncan Kgangkenna
Sometime in 1956, Irish author Brendan Behan generated immense publicity for his play The Quare Fellow after appearing drunk on a TV show.
Following this, and talking from experience, Behan wrote what is now one of his famous quotes, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary,” so he wrote.
Perhaps taking a leaf from Behan’s drunken television appearance, Zebras and Jwaneng Galaxy midfielder Lebogang Ditsile is turning his own negatives to positives.
Sometime this year, the lanky midfielder found himself in the public glare for all the wrong reasons.
‘Tally,’ as the player was affectionately called, was caught on Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) camera bringing lady companions and alcohol into a Zebras camp, thus breaking a long standing code or respecting a national team camp.
In the aftermath of the incident, Ditsile, who apologized for what he termed behaviour that is ‘extremely inappropriate, immature, and lacked the respect for the Botswana Football, the national team, Galaxy and the football supporters’ was unceremoniously dropped from the national team.
Despite his apologies, his ‘exploits’ or notoriety earned him a new name, ‘CCTV,’ a reminder of him getting busted through a surveillance camera, and the midfielder seems to have taken to the name and is using the negativity to brand himself.
On Sunday during a Mascom Top 8 quarterfinal match between Galaxy and Sharps Shooting Stars, Ditsile spotted a blond hairdo with ‘CCTV’ emblazoned in black on it.
As fate would have it, Ditsile produced a Man of the Match performance to lead his team to a 2 ÔÇô 0 victory over Sharps, ensuring Galaxy has an advantage ahead of the return leg between the two teams.
After the match Ditsile in an interview revealed why he branded his head bearing the name CCTV.
He explained that the name came after everybody including coaches and his team mates started calling him CCTV following the Zebras camp incident.
Where other would have cringed or got disillusioned, Ditsile said he is content with the nickname because it constantly reminds him that hidden acts, just as with his, can be revealed.
Meanwhile in other mascom Top 8 weekend clashes the only two teams from the north who qualified for the tournament lost their quarter final matches. Orapa United were defeated 1 nil by the visiting BDF XI. The latter will advance to the second leg with an away goal advantage. Miscellaneous of Serowe were thumped 1 nil by the visiting Gaborone United. Like BDF XI GU carries an away goal advantage to the final leg of the quarter finals.
Township Rollers and Black Forest are expected to lock horn on Friday in the first leg of the mascom top 8 quarter finals. Since the inception of Mascom Top 8 Rollers and Gaborone United have won the cup twice while BDF, Orapa and Galaxy have each own it once.
In CAF competitions, Orapa United is in Luanda, Angola for the CAF confederations cup against Atletico Petroleos De Luanda. Rollers are home to Bantu FC of the Lesotho.
