Carol Radull, the host of the sports show Radull Live, who has also worked as a sports journalist for the Radio Africa Group for 21 years, entered the world of sports as a fan of the English Premier League. However, her life goals changed when she realized that sports were not as well marketed, supported, or funded in her home country.
"I made it my personal mission to try and change things in Kenya because, as much as I love Arsenal Football Club, it will never help me financially in any way. It will never help my people. So I decided once upon a time, one day, to let the Kenyan Premier League grow and become as big as, or at least close to, some of the professional leagues in the world," she told Sputnik Africa. "So I made that my personal vendetta."
"If the journalists decide we're not covering a game, nobody will even know it's happened. If we don't portray our game in a good light, nobody will ever come and watch it. If we don't give exposure to leagues, the corporates will not put their money behind the league," she stressed.
"So the role of a journalist is very important in bringing visibility to athletes, to the different sports and leagues and to let the fans know what's happening when it's happening," Radull said.
According to her, digital media allows sports to be covered with fewer restrictions, giving journalists "endless pages" instead of "one page in a newspaper" or "a 10-minute slot [...] on the radio." This also provides an opportunity to popularize non-mainstream sports, including African ones.
"I can actually give visibility to kabaddi, to sports that people have never heard of, like rollball and cestoball [...] I have endless pages to do that," she said.