BONA turns to invitational tourney
Chakalisa Dube | Friday June 26, 2015 12:29
BONA president, Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego, said Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Swaziland have confirmed their participation and join the hosts for the tournament, which ends next week Wednesday.
She said the invitational tournament is a great opportunity to test their hosting abilities, as the country prepares to organise the 2017 World Youth Netball Cup. She explained that the idea is for BONA to get many hosting chances ahead of the 2017 World tournament, adding that in netball, the significant costs relating to hosting do not lie with the host. “Participating teams pay for their accommodation, meals and transport. The competing teams equally share the costs of international umpires,” she said.
Lebotse-Sebego explained that Botswana would foot the for the teams’ local transport, accommodation and food costs.
To minimise transport costs, teams will be accommodate at the University of Botswana, which is a walking distance from the BONA courts. Lebotse-Sebego said they do not want to spend more than what was budgeted for the Namibia trip. She said they intend to spend less but also achieve much more as they prepare for 2017.
She also said that the association has secured sponsorship from Spar Supermarket, Big Five Hotel and Mascom Wireless, while Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) and Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) have been instrumental in facilitating the process. Lebotse-Sebego further said that the association had identified 12 new match bench officials who would undergo training with the International Netball Federation. She added that the new officials would add to the pool of 25 who were trained during the Africa Youth Games and Africa Netball World Cup qualifiers held early this year. Meanwhile, BONA will simultaneously host a series of meetings, which were initially planned for the Namibia meet, such as the Africa Netball annual general meeting, Africa Union Commission Meeting for African Netball Countries and Confederation of Southern Africa Netball Associations (COSANA) annual general meeting.
Eleven countries are expected to attend the meeting.