08 Jun 2017

Botswana Netball Association (BONA) president Tebogo Lebotse -Sebego said she was happy that the media in the country had been very supportive in reporting about the coming  Netball World Youth Cup (NWYC) to be hosted by the country in July.

Briefing the media,she said  although the country was left with  some weeks to go, their observation was that to date there had not been any negative reporting about the games.

“Honestly as the NWYC, we want a positive tone regarding the games, not only is it  a World Cup but because it’s a game where we are talking about very sensitive people ,young girls and we would like a tone that talks about Botswana and Team Botswana  positively,” she said.

Lebotse -Sebego who is also the head of  communications and  protocol committee for the competitions said their plan was to create seamless communication across all the stakeholders  and release targeted and timely messaging.

For her part, NWYC head of operations Neo Bulayani-Gwafila said they were expecting 240 players, 100 team officials and 27 match officials.

She said in the 27 officials they had 21 umpires appointed by International Netball Federation (INF) and six Umpires Appointment Panel (UAP)

Furthermore, she said currently they had received final registration from all participating countries, and they were expecting 17 players from each countries and three official which might travel with the team like doctors and dieticians.

“We have also received travel forms which stipulate as to when the teams are arriving and the flight numbers and as to when they would be leaving the country,” she said.

The competition, she said would run for nine days adding that 70 games would be played at two venues being  University of Botswana and Ditshupo Hall.

She said they had secured Maruapula school, Botswana National Youth Council, Molapo indoor sport arena and University of Botswana out door where teams would train.

Bulayani-Gwafila  said no team would be allowed to use competition venue to train, but two days before the games, all teams would be fixtured to feel the floor at University of Botswana and Ditshupo Hall. ENDS