Murape to be honoured

Augustine Hwata Sports Reporter
THREE years after his death, the former Zimbabwe Davis Cup team’s non-playing captain Claudio Murape will be honoured through a tennis tournament set for Old Hararians next month.Murape, who made history when he become the first black non-playing captain for the Zimbabwe Davis Cup team, was 43 years old when he died at his Glen View home in July 2010.

According to his brother Richmore, a group of friends and family have decided to celebrate the life of the late tennis coach through a tournament.

“We would like to hold a tournament as a memorial to Claudio. Basically we have come as family and friends to stage this event at Old Hararians between October 18 to 20.

“So far we have appointed Albert Nhamoyebonde as the tournament director. Albert is a director of the Mufakose Tennis Coaching Agency that brought up Claudio as a player and captain,” said Richmore.

Top referee Shepherd Manyumbu will be the tournament referee while Lazarus Manjoro is the convener. Both Manyumbu and Manjoro were personal friends of Claudio as they played and later coached together.

According to Richmore, the Claudio Murape Memorial Tournament will also be used as a pilot event for the International Tennis Federation Tennis10 programme aimed at players under the age of 10 years.

“We should be having two age groups — that is the Tennis10 group for the Under-10.The ITF introduced the Tennis10 where players are put into three categories. The red ball is for the players between three to five years while the orange ball is for players between six and seven.

“The green ball is for players aged between 8-10 years and we should be using the Claudio Murape Memorial to see how this works.
“We will also have the veterans, who will play in a one-set match in doubles and we are hoping to get as many people as possible who played and worked with Claudio.

“So we are inviting everyone to come and celebrate the life of Claudio through tennis and a braai,” said Richmore. Winners for the matches are likely to receive prizes ranging from medals and tennis rackets bags.

“The response is encouraging so far and we hope players who were coached by Claudio like Genius Chidzikwe, Martin Dzuwa, Nigel Badza and Liberty Nzula will participate,” Richmore said.