adminRicky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
THE Heath Streak Multi-Sports Academy will celebrate its first anniversary by holding an Africa Day cricket tournament which will feature a team from Botswana. Four teams will participate at the competition to be held on May 25 at the academy’s McDonald Club, along Fourth Avenue extension in Bulawayo.Joseph Rego, the academy’s chief executive officer and executive director, said teams will play for the Raj Modi trophy.
The facility has undergone a major facelift to meet the celebrated former national team captain’s vision and dream of establishing a world class multi-sports facility in Bulawayo that identifies and nurtures talent.
Upon completion, the facility which is modelled along the South Africa’s High Performance Centre in Pretoria, will have a gym, two cricket grounds, a 25m swimming pool and an indoor sports centre that will be used for hockey and five-a-side soccer.
“We’re rounding up preparations for the Africa Day cricket tournament and will be announcing more details about the competition in less than a week. We’ll have about four developmental teams, with one coming from Botswana. The tournament is meant to honour the support that we’ve received from the corporate world and the teams will be competing for the Raj Modi trophy,” said Rego.
“Our sponsors and partners have made the academy run a success with special mention to Raj Modi who has been at the forefront of making sure that we meet world class standards. Shield Security, Swift, Choppies and Steward Bank who have taken it upon themselves to fund coaching clinics for the underpriviledged for a year are some of our partners.”
The Heath Streak Multi-Sport Academy through their ‘My vision, my Dream’ Corporate Cricket Initiative engaged companies which adopted schools of their choices from the western areas and provided them with cricket equipment worth $2,000 per school.
The programme is part of the academy’s goal of spreading the sport to previously underprivileged schools.
The equipment includes bats, gloves, pads and balls which was sourced from a leading manufacturer Sareen Sport of India.
Through the Corporate Cricket Initiative, schools are getting an opportunity to train at the state-of-the-art Heath Streak Multi-Sports Academy as part of the deals that they have made with companies.
The academy’s coaches who include seamer Christopher Mpofu, Godwill Mamhiyo, Tasmeen Granger and Mxolisi “Boxy” Dube, have also been training teachers and will be making follow-ups on players’ progress.
The Heath Streak Multi-Sports Academy is targeting at having 150 Bulawayo schools joining their Corporate Cricket Initiative by June before spreading to other parts of the country.
Online Reporter