After the adoption of playing online, bridge players competed in the first physical tourney last week since the halt of sport due to the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020.
This was revealed by Botswana Bridge Federation (BBF) secretary general Mbakisi Malilo.
Malilo noted that the objective of the simultaneous physical tournaments is to bring more players together as a start from a long break. BBF calendar runs up to April next year, there will be an open tournament and online tournament again in February next year.
It is said that players have adopted virtual play, so the attendance was not good, but the event went well. He explained that to accommodate youngsters and out of school players the event’s registration was P50, therefore BBF did not raise considerable funds. Looking at the advantage, he said, BBF had anticipated for 12 pairs to start but only five competed in the event last weekend.
“Bridge is not an expensive sport, so we are still hopeful to find a sponsor. It is affordable to host a physical tournament, the funds are spent on providing meals, prize monies and venue. It depends on the tournament hosted, the teams’ pairs would be costly than pairs because prize money will be higher,” he explained.
Malilo observed that, the budget breakdown for the tournament is P12, 000, the prize monies will go for P7500 in total and logistics is on a budget of P4,500. He said for teams, position 1 will receive P3,000, Second spot will get P2,500 and the P2,000 for the third place.BBF is expecting at least 5 teams to compete.
Nevertheless, BBF has held on to their morale as they find a way to bring back the players from across the regions in the country. As for this year, Malilo mentioned, BBF will host the last event for 2021 next weekend (27 November 2021).
