With slightly over 12 months before Botswana welcomes the best netballers, umpires and officials to its shores, pressure is already building up as Botswana Netball Association (BONA) efforts to lure an Australian coach hit a snag.
BONA is under pressure to recruit an experienced international coach to guide the under 21 team that will be competing in the 2017 World Youth Netball Championships slated for Gaborone. The association has had to retreat to the drawing board following a collapse in the negotiations.
The Australian mentor who was favoured for the job is said to have balked at the salary proposed by BONA. The coach was expected to lead both the development teams and the senior team expected the job to come with a fat paycheque.
‘’It is true talks between the identified coach and BONA have collapsed and they are currently recruiting again for the post,” said a source.
BONA President Tebogo Lebotse Sebego would not discuss the issue saying, ‘’we are still at the recruiting stage and nothing much can be communicated at this point.”
However, Sebego revealed that the Association has stepped up preparations for the games and currently recruiting for a fully fledged full time secretariat. Staging one of the sport’s pinnacles for the first time on African soil, BONA intends to assure the wider netball community that Africa has a future in netball.
As part of their preparations for the games, BONA has decided to recruit full time employees. Sebego told Sunday Standard Sports that they are working around the clock to have a fully fledged secretariat that will work on logistics and other preparations.
‘’We now have three full time staff members working at the office and anticipate to have a fully fledged secretariat soon,” said Sebego. She revealed that they are planning to have a countdown campaign that will run countrywide. The campaign is an effort to sensitize the nation about the games. ‘’It should be understood that it will be the first time that these games will be held on African soil and we want to embark on a 365 days countdown activation to hype up the event,” she said.
