Botswana opts out of Africa hockey qualifiers
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday March 19, 2021 21:32
Botswana will miss the Central-South Africa ACN to be held in Zimbabwe this May.
The BHA has, however, said it will send the senior men and women’s teams to the Indoor Africa Cup (IAC) to be held in Durban, South Africa in April. The IAC is a qualifying tournament for the World Cup where two top teams will book their places at the spectacle and would run from April 15 to 19, 2021.
“We would have liked to participate in both tournaments but due to lack of funds, we will not be sending a team to the Africa Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe. We would rather compete at the Indoor World Cup qualifiers in South Africa. We had looked at many factors, we felt that the situation in Zimbabwe regarding [the coronavirus] COVID-19 has worsened, the country has since been in lockdown, these were part of the reasons why we came to this decision,” BHA president, Unaswi Matebu told Mmegi Sport this week.
She said despite the suspension of sport locally, the national teams’ camp has been affected. Matebu said the BHA had been given the green light to train by the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC). She added they remain in the dark if the national teams will receive the COVID-19 vaccine before their departure to Durban.
“There has not been clear communication from the BNSC on how we are going to be assisted. But as the federation, we have followed all the guidelines required for a national team to assemble. We are expecting to do a few more tests before we leave for South Africa,” Matebu said. BHA has assembled 17- member squads for each of the men and the women’s teams. The teams have been in camp since the start of the year and will aim to secure a maiden World VIP berth.