The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Kwese Sports Victoria Falls Sevens tournament is not taking place this year with the Zimbabwe Rugby Union pushing ahead with the Harare International Sevens to be staged in March.
Harare Sports Club is the venue of the sevens rugby tournament to be staged in the capital city on 23 and 24 March, the same dates when the third addition of the Victoria Falls Sevens was meant to take place.
ZRU president, Aaron Jani said the decision to move the tournament from Victoria Falls to Harare was made in December because of the logistical challenges associated with having the event in the resort town.
In the two years that the tournament was held in Victoria Falls, there were a lot of challenges, with some of them being the transportation of match officials and support staff from Harare as well as Bulawayo.
Poor attendance also characterised the Victoria Falls Sevens which meant that there was not much realised from gate takings.
“Nothing has changed, it’s just a change of venue. The move is to make the tournament more efficient and make it more cost effective and to access bigger crowds. For obvious reasons there were a few people in Victoria Falls who love the sport, the catchment area is too small compared to Harare,’’ Jani said.
In terms of sponsorship, Jani indicated that Kwese are still the main bankrollers since there is an existing agreement which runs up to 2021 with other sponsors to be known next month.
“Kwese are still very much involved since we have a contract with them until 2021. We will have a variety of sponsors that we are approaching, by 15 February we should have tied them down,’’ said Jani.
The Victoria Falls Sevens first addition was in 2017 when the Gilbert Nyamutsamba coached Zimbabwe Cheetahs were the inaugural champions with a 24-7 triumph over Namibia. Last year, Kenya defeated Zimbabwe in the final.
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