JB Sports which has been sponsoring the Men’s Volleyball mini gala league have now switched their loyalties in favour of the code’s women.
A Volleyball lover and spectator Candy Mayer told Sunday Standard Sport that JB Sports should not have left men in the lurch.
“I know that they have always been there for volleyball but if they gave priority for the league, why did they not sponsor the men’s league as they have always been involved with men’s events,” he asked rhetorically.
The Women’s league sponsorship was launched on Wednesday. Jackie Matthews of JB Sports revealed that indeed the JB Sports men’s volleyball gala 2006 was just about to be launched when his company heard about the search of sponsorship for the league.
“Meanwhile the BVF approached me with a request to sponsor this year’s women league saying that there was no sponsor for the league. Looking at the situation, we decided to give the priority for the league. But we are not be in a position to conduct Volleyball gala due to other financial commitments,” said Matthews.
This notwithstanding, JB sports must be applauded for coming to Volleyball rescue.
The company has been in the sports industry for more than twelve years.
“We have been very much involved in developing sports in Botswana at various levels. We started with the mini volleyball tournament in the year 2000 for primary school children and later this programme was taken over by Barloworld.
The elite tournament for men, which we sponsored, became one of the best tournaments at National level and we continued with it for three years,” he said.
Matthews told Sunday Standard Sport that sports should not be taken lightly as it plays a major role in socio-political issues between countries.
“Sport has the healing power to solve disputes among nations worldwide. For example Cricket has played a major role to resolve so many issues between India and Pakistan. As a result peace was brought to the region,” said Matthews.
The total amount of the Women’s League sponsorship is P50 000.
P45 000 will be credited as cash with P5 000 set aside for purchase of trophies.
The Women’s league started on the 17th June. Round one of the league will finish on 5th August and the second round will end in October. The finals will take place November.
