adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
AFTER spending several years plying their trade in Division One, Flame Lily finally made it into the Premiership when they won the 2014 Northern Region League and vice-chairman Tendayi “Zulu” Chaponda says they are in the top-flight league to stay.
Teams from the Northern Region have been competitive in the Premiership.
Chaponda attributed their success to their sponsors BancABC, who have been financially supporting the team through their BancEasy subsidiary.
“We finally broke the jinx after several attempts since the club was formed in 2001. Our first promising opportunity came in 2004.
“The challenges we faced were mostly to do with sponsorship before BancABC started sponsoring us in 2013.
“I think that boosted morale for our players, which led us to winning the league title because since they came on board we never had any challenges in terms of bonus, salaries and uniforms for our players.
“We also want to thank our patron Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Commissioner-General Paradzai Zimondi; he supports the team and everything is in order.
“You find that there are many teams in the league that have backlogs for salaries because they don’t have sponsorship. So, far we have a good package for this year’s campaign,” said Chaponda.
Chaponda said since this is their first year in the Premiership they will be out to avoid relegation.
“We are not rushing to say we want to win the league. As newcomers we have got a lot to learn and let’s hope those we will meet in the league will welcome us as new comers.
“We know it’s a competition and we are not afraid of competition.
“Now that we are in the Premiership I don’t think we will go back to Division One. We have the sponsorship. Usually monetary problems affect the viability of teams.
“We won’t set targets, but what we don’t want is to go back to Division One. So, we want to build a team to play in the Premiership. This is our first year, if we set targets and lose, then what?
“As the executive, we will leave the technical department to do its job and we do our part, which is to make available the resources needed for the team to fulfil their mandate,” noted Chaponda.
Flame Lily have retained the bulk of their players and the technical team led by Nesbert Saruchera.
“It is for continuity; we just said let’s give him (Saruchera) the chance because it’s unfair to just drop someone who has done so well with the team.
“We don’t have any big names, but we have good players. We have some that we want to sign. We have already signed Isaac Madziva and Ashley Ganya from ZRP Morris and we have two more guys from Tenax our sister club.
“Some of them we are still negotiating, but I cannot say names because we are not yet done,” said Chaponda.
The Flame Lily vice-chairperson also hailed the club’s leadership for the way they led the team in a challenging campaign.
The team has been preparing for their debut Premiership season at Chikurubi.
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