NSA mum on Proteas’ bonuses

IT remains to be seen how much money the Proteas will receive for their participation in this year’s Netball World Cup (NWC) as Netball South Africa (NSA) remain coy ahead of the tournament that starts in Cape Town on Friday.

Ahead of the 2019 tournament, the team were promised R1-million each if they won the World Cup, R750 000 if they finished second, R500 000 for third-place finish and R200 000 for making the semi-finals. They managed to finish fourth in Liverpool that year after losing to England 58-42 in the bronze final.

It was South Africa’s best finish at the showpiece event since their runner-up finish in 1995.

This time round, NSA president Cecilia Molokwane revealed that the association had decided not to disclose just how much the players would be getting.

“We are not going to announce anything,” Molokwane explained yesterday.

“We learnt from our mistakes. In Liverpool, we announced that if they go to the semi-finals and win it, they would get a million each. I think they concentrated more on the million than on playing the game itself.

“We talked to the players, and we told them that there will be incentives, obviously. They know that. We gave them incentives when they ended fourth at the 2019 World Cup.

“But for now, let’s keep it to ourselves and not announce the incentives that are there.”

The Proteas have been hard at work preparing for the tournament, but have also been mingling with fans and immersing themselves in the World Cup atmosphere.

SA take on Wales in their opening match on Friday at 4pm, after the Opening ceremony at 2pm at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).

“I went to the CTICC yesterday and the girls were training,” Molokwane said.

“I was wondering, are they training or are they playing a tournament? When we started this journey, there was a time when we couldn’t say we are ready to host the World Cup because Covid came.

“It dragged us back; we had to run like cheetahs to make sure that this tournament becomes a reality.“

After Friday’s clash, the Proteas face Sri Lanka a day later before ending the preliminary group stage on Sunday against Jamaica.