23 May 2023

Maun Heroes Netball Club recently conducted a two-day  trial for junior and senior female and male teams in preparation for the Fast 5 tournament billed for July 14-17.

The purpose of the trials, which catered for players aged 14-19 years and senior players aged above 20 years, was to select the team that would represent Maun in the tournament.

In an interview, Botswana Netball Association (BONA) public relations officer, Mokeresete Mokeresete, said the Fast 5 initiative was a new form of netball played by five players.

Mokeresete said the association secured a P238 000 three-year sponsorship deal from SKL Safari Company last year.

He appreciated efforts by Maun Heroes to prepare for the national activity, which he said would attract four teams.

“This is extremely difficult form of netball as it differs from the traditional one. It needs a lot of stamina and as the association, we took a decision that it should be played by clubs,” he said.

He added that there were 16 clubs in the country - eight from South Zone and eight from North Zone.

Mokeresete further noted that there would be some elimination stage at zonal level, while in stage two, champions from South Zone would compete with their counterparts from the North Zone and eventually come out with the four teams that would qualify for the national tournament.

He said the second category, which involves Under 19 ladies, would be done differently as they would also be preparing a team that would represent the country at the Commonwealth Youth Games to be held in Trinidad and Tobago on August 4-11, 2023.

Under this category, he said they would be selecting top ten best players who would participate in the elite competition.

Mokeresete said four teams comprising of one from Mogoditshane Sports of Excellence, Maun Re Ba Bona Ha programme and two from zones would take part in preparations for the games.

Meanwhile, he revealed that 95 per cent of players who turned up for the Maun trials were in Re Ba Bona Ha programme, adding that they were forced to hold the tournament to match the international standard as majority of the players had never played in international competitions.

For his part, Maun Heroes Netball Club head coach, Motlogelwa Seno, said the trials also aimed to revive netball in Maun as well as to recruit quality players.

He also noted that they had to register at least 25 players for each category and expressed concern that men were not coming forth to play netball, adding that the situation was worsened by the cessation of school sport.

 He said the number of male players was very low, adding however that they had the correct attributes, height and physique.  ENDS