The second round of the Estate Construction Men’s softball league kicks off this Saturday with at least six games scheduled to take place in the Southern zone.
At least three games are scheduled for the National Diamond grounds while another two are slated for Jwaneng on the same day.
The league’s first round matches, which were supposed to have come to an end last year in December only came to an end last Saturday. Speaking to Telegraph Sport, Botswana Softball Association (BSA) competitions Director, Kelebogile Ditsele, said the rainy seasons interrupted their season and games had to be delayed as grounds were not in usable condition.
“Softball is played on dusty grounds and as such, the grounds get very slippery during rainy seasons. We, therefore, had to postpone some of the games, which led to the current situation,” Ditsele said in an interview. Another problem facing the BSA is lack of facilities, something which is said to be more visible in the southern zone. Ditsele says while there are many teams in the South, there are only two grounds for the all the teams to use.
“Most of the times, you will see teams from as far as Lobatse or even Thebephatshwa using the National Diamond grounds as their home grounds as there are no facilities for them in their areas and this also causes congestion in our league fixtures,” she added.
She, however, says the situation is better in the North where there are at least four good grounds and a fewer number of teams. The BSA competitions Director was, however, hopeful that the situation will improve once the softball grounds in Lobatse become available.
Apart from the grounds and weather induced delays, the BSA competitions director says all went well in the league as compared to the past seasons. She says unlike in the past, clubs have shown more commitment, something which has not been there before.
“We have not seen clubs forfeiting or even not coming for their fixture games as has been in the past. This shows more commitment as most of our clubs are community based and are not financially stable,” Ditsele said in an interview.
She further says the same commitment is now visible in officiating games as umpires are not missing games.
Meanwhile, the BSA competitions Director says they expect the league to come to a close in April as scheduled. While admitting that the current weather season may interrupt their fixtures, Ditsele says they will be monitoring the situation to ensure that the league finishes on time.
“If the weather gets bad, we will consider taking most of our games to Jwaneng as the ground there is better,” she told Telegraph Sport. “The league should be finished by April and the top four teams, both South and North will be expected to fight for the championships in May,” Ditsele said.
On other issues, the BSA competition Director says they are still on the lookout for potential sponsors for their women’s league. While Estate Construction sponsors the men’s league to the tune of P200┬á000 over two years, ending in 2012, the ladies league has still got no sponsor as yet.
