The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Rugby Union have gone for Victoria Falls Primary School as the venue for the inaugural edition of the Kwese Sports Sevens tournament to be held next month.
Stakeholders met in the resort town last Wednesday where a decision was taken that the school was the best setting for the first time ever event. ZRU president Nyararai Sibanda said the school was deemed as the most appropriate venue because the Driving Range at Elephant Hills will not be ready by the time of the tournament.
“We have settled for Victoria Falls Primary School for the Kwese Sports Victoria Falls Sevens.
“We have signed the service level agreement with the school and will make use of the field adjacent the cricket wicket.
“It was the most suitable venue, the other one is suitable but not ready, it will be available from next year, while it works this year as a practice field, it will be a match venue for next year and years to come,’’ said Sibanda.
Last Wednesday’s meeting was attended by ZRU, the Victor Rakabopa-chaired Local Organising Committee, Kwese Sports, Legacy Hotels, Victoria Falls Primary School board, headmaster and representatives from the town council. Sibanda indicated that they were satisfied with the level of preparedness with the official launch in Victoria Falls scheduled for 11 March.
“We are pretty happy with the level of preparations and enthusiasm, we see people that want to deliver a successful inaugural tournament.
“We are mooting to have a launch event where we will have a prominent rugby person for the dinner speak on 11 March which will be a fundraising dinner.
“We expect the Victoria Falls community largely, those who can come from Kasane and Livingstone to come out in their numbers,’’ Sibanda said.
As of Friday, countries that had confirmed their participation are Sierra Leone, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Zambia.
Invites were also sent to Uganda, South Africa, Morocco, Kenya, Egypt, Tunisia, Nigeria and Ghana who are yet to respond.
Sibanda said ideally they want it to be a 10-team tournament, 80 percent of which should be African countries.
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