No salary for new Sables coach
THE new Zimbabwe national 15s rugby team coach must be willing to engage in fundraising activities for the Sables since the team has no official sponsor.
Zimbabwe Rugby Union vice-president in charge of national teams Tapiwa Mangezi pointed out that with the mother body known to be struggling financially, whoever gets appointed Sables coach must be willing to be involved in raising funds for the team. ZRU have formally started the process of looking for a new coach after accepting Cyprian Mandenge’s resignation.
While Mangezi said the union was doing everything to make sure that everyone who plays for or coaches a national side must get financial compensation seeing that they have to take time off from their fulltime employment. ZRU made it clear in their advertisement for a new coach issued out at the beginning of last week that the Sables coaching position comes with no salary.
“Anyone who is playing for or coaching a national team should get remunerated, it is not a perfect situation at the moment. The union is struggling financially, it has been for years, its nothing new, unfortunately if you are working in an amateur set up you have to also assist with fundraising. We need to get back to 1A quickly, the new coach has to understand the magnitude of the job he has. We are looking for someone with a track record, the person has to look for resources, everyone has to help out,’’ said Mangezi.
On reports that Mandenge and his technical team never got support from the union and was pushed out of his job, Mangezi refuted that, stating that the coach had deliverables which he did not meet. He said Mandenge had the same sort of backing from ZRU as was given to his predecessor Brendan Dawson.
“They got the same support as the previous coaches as far as I understand, even during my time as a player under Dawson the coach used to fundraise. He had not met his deliverables, we did a review and they decided to resign,’’ Mangezi said.
It appears persisting with old horses instead of introducing young players into the team is what cost Mandenge his job. Sources within the union said it would have been understandable and better if the team had lost with promising players.
On the search for the new Sables coach, Mangezi yesterday said applications have already started coming in, some from even outside the country. The ZRU plan, according to Mangezi is to have a new coach in the next two weeks as the players need to get into camp during the last week of this month for the end of year tour to Hong Kong.