BSA NEC Bows Out On A High Note
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday January 22, 2018 15:58
The committee leaves office on a high note after the performance of the national teams in the World Championships. The senior women’s national team recently hoisted the nation’s flag high and qualified for the World Championships. BSA public relations officer, Kelebogile Seitei yesterday revealed that Botswana has also been invited to the European Championship games in Prague, Czech Republic in August. She said at the beginning of their term, NEC had set high targets and has managed to achieve quite a number of them.
Seitei said the first round of the 2017-2018 league was too short to determine rankings. She said the league started later than the normal time due to works being done at the National Diamond.
“The league was further disrupted by the senior national women’s preparations before the Christmas break, which meant a number of games being pushed to 2018. We expect a bit of congestion as we need to make up for the games postponed from late last year,” she said.
Regarding institutional teams’ continuous domination of the league, Seitei said there is nothing they can do. She acknowledged how the playing field is not level.
She said it is extremely difficult for some teams to grow if institutional teams keep poaching their players by promising them jobs and offering what their teams cannot afford such as free transport to matches and meals. She said the disparity is clear during tournaments as most teams can only afford to sleep in classrooms while some teams are accommodated in hotels.
Seitei said this season is going to be unique. “The difference in form is already clear with teams that have representatives in the national team. Everyone has been on break for at least six weeks and they never took a break. The other element is that we are reviewing the second round play format, after getting feedback from affiliates that it was costly as there were too many stages that involved a lot of travel,” she said.
Seitei said the overall structure would be considered by the incoming committee as the current NEC would not be in a position to implement it before the elections, which would be held immediately after the end of the league. She explained that their task is to complete the current projects and plans including focusing on the national team activities.
“We have always expressed unhappiness at the lack of regional competition, which hampers growth in the region as we cannot really test ourselves fully before we compete at the world stage.
Although the recently ended African qualifiers were a welcome development, pulling out by three teams at the last minute was a bit of a disappointment. A seven team tournament would have given all an opportunity to really put their players to the test,” Seitei said. Meanwhile, the second round of the BoFiNeT softball league began over the weekend.