Bosso Legends meet

Lovemore Dube

FORMER Highlanders players will gather at Crescent Sports Club tomorrow afternoon to elect a new executive team that will unite the generations.

Jerry Sibanda, a former Bosso striker and executive member, stated that the meeting will be unique in that it will bring together multiple generations of players.

According to Sibanda, 1980s-era teams dominated the Bosso Legends Association.

There was also an outcrop – the Class of 1998 – a group of players who won four championships in a row and are considered the most successful, that has remained intact.

However, in terms of popularity, the 1980s team led by legendary Madinda Ndlovu, Douglas Mloyi, Alexander Maseko, Dumisani Nyoni, Richard Ndlovu, Peter Nkomo, Netsai Moyo, Tito Paketh, and the late Mercedes Sibanda, Willard, Titus Majola and Rahman Gumbo leads the way.

The group won everything including the 1990 league title, a first by the club in independent Zimbabwe.

“We are meeting tomorrow to choose an executive that will unite generations of players who have played for this great club. There have been fissures, unfortunate though, where we find a certain generation more visible in former players activities and others shunning. At Highlanders we are one and we need to bring together everyone so that as former players we work on programmes that benefit all former players at one go.

“No player should feel left out, we served one club and one community,” said Sibanda who is not vying for any position in the Douglas Mloyi-led structure.

The former players have been meeting once a year to remember their fallen teammates. Family members of the deceased join their relatives’ or husbands’ former teammates and spruce graves and then meet the Highlanders Clubhouse for a braai and drinks.

Sibanda noted that the gathering often had players from the 1980s with the Class of 1998 visible in drabs.

“Am show after this meeting, we will have sense of unity and work together for the common good of everyone. I am happy every year we will be having tombstone unveiling ceremonies for two players courtesy of Trymore Sibanda of Straight Suppliers and Distributors sponsorship sourced for us by sons of former teammates,” said Sibanda.

He said the welfare of living former players is something that could not be left to individual family members and club, as after leaving Bosso players met different situations, hence the desire to regroup and work towards improving their welfare and perpetuating the legacies of the different generations.