BCA suspends Under-13 league

NELSON DIRENG
Correspondent | Friday July 2, 2010 00:00

 

The league was halted this week after all schools failed to honour their fixtures. 'Some however wanted to honour fixtures but their respective councils didn't release buses to transport them to the oval,' BCA president, Girish Ramakrishna, said. He stated that this is the first time the competition has to be suspended. He said the setback will not demoralise the BCA and the tournament will not be abandoned. 'We will resume the league shortly and we will try and meet our July 14 completion deadline,' he said.

He urged schools to give the league priority. He said he has told the coaches to sort out the issue with the schools' administration.

The league was supposed to be used to select the Under-13 national team to represent Botswana at a regional competition in Namibia this month. Ramakrishna said they will use players from the current squad which was selected last year.  'One good thing is that many of the children who are supposed to be part of the team are available and have been practising at the Gaborone Cricket Club (GCC) oval every Saturday,' he said.

Meanwhile, the BCA's teacher orientation programme that took place in Kasane last week was a flop. Only 10 of the expected 20 teachers attended the orientation. Ramakrishna said the BCA will concentrate on Selebi-Phikwe and Mmadinare teachers for now as they have shown a lot of promise. Taurai Chakanetsa will be employed as a full-time coach for the region. Ramakrishna said that it is through orientation programmes that they select regions to concentrate on. 'If the teachers' response is good, then we will proceed to initiating the children,' he said. Cricket equipment will be distributed to schools in the Selebi-Phikwe, Mmadinare region next week.