Companies boost softball extravaganza with cash
Ivy Matlho | Thursday July 23, 2015 11:04
This year’s edition, held over the President’s Day holiday, saw an increase in the number of sponsors and an improvement in prize money.
Tournament director, Dan Mahupela said the intention of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) is to grow the tournament.
“We want this tournament to outstrip any other sporting event in Botswana in few years to come. This year we have a number of sponsors because we want softball to grow,” he said at a pre-tournament dinner.
He said softball can be used to diversify the economy of Selebi-Phikwe and create employment.
Mahupela said one of Batswana’s biggest problems is that there do not want to dream big. “We should all look forward to something big. One of our biggest problems is that we do not want to think big.
“Let us think big because we want softball to become something that will push this area further,” he said.
Mahupela said next year they want to increase the prize money to P100,000 and that some sponsors have pledged to increase their relationship with the tournament.
After Mahupela announced the intention to increase the prize money to P100,000 some companies came forward with renewed commitment. EDTB vowed to pop out 50 percent towards the first prize money in the next three years. Liberty Life pledged P50,000 for the juniors tournament for the next three years while Focused Engineering Solutions pledged financial partnership for a similar period.
Focused Engineering Solutions, operations manager, Bone Lekgetho stated that they have decided to increase their sponsorship period for three years as they want softball to grow in Botswana.
“We will be here for the next three years; our intention is to sponsor softball in the long run. We also sponsored grassroot level tournament,” she said. Lesego Pule of Botsogo Health said sports can only grow if the corporate world comes together. He said Botsogo would continue to support the tournament for the next three years.
Komatsu was the men’s competition sponsor with P130,000, while Bridgestone were the main funders for the women’s section.
Other sponsors were AEL mining, Barloworld Equipment, Puma, ADP Kukama, Air Liquide, Letshego, Investec, BancABC, Bharon Construction, Boitekanelo Occupational Health Solutions, AT&T Monnakgotla, Innolead, Zebtec, Pick n Pay, CPP, Betach, Leco Botswana, Oval Solutions and G4 Consulting Engineers. Meanwhile, Dinare were crowned women’s champions after defeating Wells 7-4 in the final. In the men’s category, BDF IX managed to defend their crown. Both champions pocketed a healthy P60,000.