Netball sails through despite odds
The Botswana Netball Association (BONA) president, Malebo Raditladi-Nkgakile can look back with pride after a successful league final held over the weekend.
Raditladi-Nkgakile came into office at a time when BONA was marred in controversy emanating from the 2017 Netball World Youth Cup.
The association had a mountain of debt and then the association lost the league sponsor. After her re-election last year, Raditladi-Nkgakile had to deal with an appeal against her victory.
The other candidate, Thulaganyo Retshabile challenged the outcome of the results and the appeal is still pending.
Despite the challenges, LUCARA Diamond Company came to the rescue of netball sponsoring the league with P300,000. Raditladi-Nkgakile told Mmegi Sport that it has been a difficult time.
“The company did not give us what we had proposed but it is better than nothing. They gave us what they had and we had to plan how we progress.
The expenses of the league were high because of the high number of clubs we had. We ended up agreeing to have only one leg in the Southern Zone because they have many clubs,” she said. Raditladi-Nkgakile said they changed the format of the league final in a bid to cut costs.
She said they hope that the league sponsor will be happy when the report is submitted. She said the challenge that they have is the professionalism of clubs as they fail to take care of the welfare of their players or even have their own activities. “Clubs depend on the national league and they never come up with their own activities.
There should also be zonal activities instead of waiting for the BONA executive committee to come up with activities. In that way, netball will bounce back but as for now they will keep sharing with zones,” she said.
Raditladi-Nkgakile said her intention before she steps down is to conduct an administration course for clubs. She said clubs should not depend on the executive committee.
She said players that are needed in the national team depend on the development of clubs. “If clubs are non-functional, without set training, set plans what they want from us as the executive committee, is exactly they should be doing on the ground.
We cannot focus on the national team and then do development while we have the zones and clubs on the ground,” she said.
Raditladi-Nkgakile said they introduced the men’s league like in other countries and when they do not have money for the women’s national team to play test series, men can assist in preparing for international games. As part of the national team’s activities, Botswana will participate in the Six Nations Cup at the end of the month.
“We will be going to Singapore for the Six Nations Cup end of November. It is a struggle because the P700,000 grant from the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) is finished. The grant was exhausted during the Africa World Cup qualifiers,” she said.
Raditladi-Nkgakile said the qualifiers boosted the team in the rankings and the Singapore tournament will do the same. She said they were hoping to be invited to the SPAR Diamond Challenge, which will be held at the University of Pretoria from November 22-26.
She said everyone is preparing for the 2023 Netball World Cup, which Botswana failed to qualify for. “We have support from the World Cup Legacy Project and we had two assessors from the legacy team who were here to assess our umpires and coaches. We do not only focus on athlete development. Recently we presented our Long-Term Athlete Development Programme, which everyone has to follow. I think by the end of the Legacy Project, we will look better,” she said. Raditladi-Nkgakile said the local coaches must learn from the national team coach, van Dyk. She said unfortunately coaches are wasting time, and they wait to be invited. “Coaches need to understand that van Dyk is here to assist them. When the legacy project ends, they must be ready to take over. The Legacy Project runs until the end of the World Cup,” she said. Meanwhile, Police are the women’s league champions while Vipers emerged champions on the men’s side after the finals held in Otse over the weekend.
Individual awards Women: Best shooter (Cheludo David - Police), Best midcourt (Barati Phesodi - Police), Best defender (Letang Mogotlhwane - Police), and Overall best player (Hildah Binang - BDF Cats).
Men: Best shooter (Phenyo Boniface Moeng - Vipers), Best midcourt player (Tshepang Modise - Vipers), Best defender (Boykie Rathari - BDF), and
Overall best player (Henry Moalosi - Vipers).