Three men and women teams qualified and will join Vikings teams in the finals. Vikings teams automatically qualified by virtue of being hosts. In the women's bracket, seven teams took part with Wells, Bears and Police IX sailing through while on the men's side BDF IX, Blue Angels and Paper Club beat other seven to book places in the last stage. The teams will join the other six who will qualify over the weekend in the north to battle it out for top honours in the March 1-2 grand finale. Tournament organiser, Otsogile Itseng, said in Gaborone yesterday that the qualifiers went well as they did not encounter any major problems. He was also satisfied with the spectator turnout. He said teams cooperated with the organisers. The southern qualifiers, which were deferred because of the rain, will now be held in Selebi-Phikwe. However, Itseng said they are likely to experience problems in the north, as only two women's teams have registered for qualifiers. He said the organising committee would decide what to do if more women teams do not register by the end of the week. In the men's category, seven teams would be taking part, he said.
The Oseg group of companies, Barclays Bank, Tsarara Investments, Shell Oil Botswana and Thumbi Sports, are sponsoring the tournament. The Oseg tournament is held under the theme: "Furthering excellence in softball" and it is meant to honour the Vikings founding father Andrew Mokoto. Sixty percent of proceeds will be donated to charity while remaining 40 percent will be given to the Botswana Softball Association (BSA). Vikings hope to have raised P20, 000 at the end of the tournament. Winners in both categories will walk away with P10, 000 each while runners-up will pocket P6, 900. There will be other awards for most valuable player, best hitter, best fielder, best pitcher and media.
