Eagles, ZTN Prime deal unveiled

Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE Cricket franchise Mashonaland Eagles yesterday gave their side a good head start ahead of the new domestic season when they unveiled Zimpapers Television Network as their official media partner.

Eagles, who are one of the country’s most successful cricket franchises, signed the deal with Zimbabwe’s fastest growing television network in Harare yesterday.

Under the pact, ZTN Prime will become the official media partner for Eagles for this coming season and this will cover all their domestic competitions for men and women.

In fact, ZTN Prime will be the official shirt sleeve sponsor for Eagles and in return ZTN Prime will be creating content and media coverage to Eagles in terms of helping promote the brand through the television channel.

ZTN Prime will also be creating a sports documentary series around the Eagles season for the Logan Cup, Pro50 as well as the T20 competitions.

ZTN Prime Managing Executive Howard Musonza said the deal will help tell the Zimbabwe cricket story.

“We have been talking about the national team and the Eagles players that are there. But people will never tell you about those players.

“So what we are essentially doing as ZTN Prime, we want to amplify that; we want to tell the Zimbabwe story. And the Zimbabwe story starts with teams like Eagles.

“If we become the conduit for your players, for whoever is aspiring to be a cricket player and then put it on the wall, people will start to notice Zimbabwe.

“So, that’s our role as ZTN Prime. We want to make sure that whatever we do people will always remember the Zimbabwean story,” said Musonza.

Eagles general manager Wonder Chisango said the deal was massive for the franchise.

“Firstly, obviously just to thank ZTN for giving us this opportunity to partner them as we come on board. This is a historic moment, I think, within the cricket set-up.

“We are going to be the first, first province, the first franchise to have sponsorship and a media partner, if we were to say.

“It’s historic in the sense that we have always had a story to tell but how we tell that story was the unanswered question. But today, as we sit here, we are joyous and we are happy that from our story we will be able to get a partner who is coming on board to create the content.

“We already have our own following but we always want to grow the following and we believe that ZTN has got a command with regards to sport and we believe that they are the best partner to have at the current moment,” said Chisango.

ZTN Prime are currently the leading sports channel in Zimbabwe after clinching broadcast deals with the Premier Soccer League, Zimbabwe Rugby Union and most recently the Zim Afro T10.