The Sunday News
Senior Sports Reporter
THE country’s traditional home of rugby, Hartsfield Rugby Ground in Bulawayo is ready to host the remaining matches for the four Bulawayo Castle Lager Premier Soccer League clubs.Highlanders, Chicken Inn, Bantu Rovers and How Mine were left without home grounds following the closure of the three city stadia Barbourfields, Luveve and White City which are under renovations ahead of the African Union Region Five Youth Games set for December in Bulawayo.
Highlanders will use the same venue in a mid-week fixture this week when they clash with Triangle.
PSL chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele said Hartsfield had been inspected by the league’s technical committee and was ready for football matches. Ndebele said an agreement had been concluded with the Matabeleland Rugby Football Board, the owners of the facility.
He disclosed that the committee was looking at ways they could best handle the issue of the rugby posts which were not mobile as the case with stadia in neighbouring South Africa which were used for both soccer and rugby.
“We have agreed in principle with the Matabeleland Rugby Board to use the Hartsfield for PSL matches. Our technical team was looking at how best we can handle the issue of goalposts,’’ said Ndebele.
The non-availability of grounds in Bulawayo has seen the Chibuku Cup matches which were supposed to be played at Luveve Stadium being switched to Gweru and Zvishavane. Highlanders lock horns with Shabanie Mine at Ascot Stadium in Gweru while How Mine and Chicken Inn meet at Mandava Stadium in Zvishavane. Bantu Rovers also met FC Platinum at Mandava yesterday.
Bulawayo teams had prior to the closure of the three stadia proposed to use far away venues such as Mandava and Colliery Stadium as home grounds where they were going to fulfil the remainder of their home fixtures until the end of the season.
However, the availability of Hartsfield, a facility which can accommodate 8 000 spectators comes as a huge relief for both teams and supporters, in terms of travelling costs.
Hartsfield was previously used for top flight football with teams such as the now defunct Njube Sundowns and Bantu Rovers making use of the facility.
With uncertainty over the future of this season’s National Rugby League, the staging of PSL matches will bring some revenue for the cash challenged Tapiwa Mangezi -led MRFB.
