Current anti-colonial discourses in Africa relate to the quest for grounded and authentic research in aid of a public agenda for positive and sustainable social transformation. Such discourses articulate with nationalist human development agendas in post-colonial political dispensations. Researchers are instrumental in addressing critical and strategic agendas by bridging the theory–practice divide as meaningful praxis. This chapter firstly reflects on the role of the ‘critical academic’ and explores power struggles, co-creation of knowledge and the reciprocal agency within the SDP field and in the research process. Southern theoretical perspectives underpin the uneasy disjunct vested in the discourse-debate-reality triad. The researcher often remains at a revolving door of fragmented knowledges of knowing and doing. Secondly, various sport (for) development discourses are discussed relating contextually grounded knowledge production and exploitative practices evidenced by Global Northern (agency) domination. Reflecting on the human legacy of sport mega-events and sport (for) development initiatives reveals existing fault lines vested in political rhetoric rather than emerging from the nature of development. Research in sport for development often builds on illusive and controversial constructs and silences the beneficiaries in the abstract. The fourth theme speaks to ethical and moral obligations for a transformative research agenda and development talk sounding hollow against systemic inertia. Sport for development outcomes seldom articulates with sustainable larger-scale expectations. ‘Co-competitive’ arrangements emerging during COVID-19 lockdowns hold promise for better informed, strategic and resilient communities of practice in work related to sport-for-development.