Ngezi renovate Baobab Stadium

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
NORTHERN Region Division One Soccer league champions Ngezi Platinum have begun refurbishments of their home ground Baobab as they are keen to play in their own backyard when they make their debut appearance in the Premiership next year.

The platinum boys won the Northern Region title with six games to spare to earn promotion into the top-flight league and have made their intentions clear of maintaining Baobab, which they used during their campaign in Division One as their home ground.

And renovations are underway with the hope that they will meet the PSL requirements to avoid a situation where they will have to find an alternative ground away from home like what happened to ZPC Kariba last year.

ZPC Kariba had to use Gwanzura as their home ground and had to be content with travelling to Harare for their home games playing away from their fans after their ground, Nyamhunga failed to meet the PSL requirements.

It was a similar tale with Tsholotsho who are building their own stadium but had to make do with playing their home games in Bulawayo.

However, Ngezi Platinum are confident their ground will be ready when the 2016 season kicks off.

Club chairperson, Jeremiah Gasitene said work is already underway at the ground and are hoping to finish the renovations by February.

“What I can tell you is that we have started the groundwork, it’s about a week now. We are looking at the basic minimum requirements — the grandstand, changing rooms, the pitch itself and the perimeter fence as well as the parking area. I think those are the basics that we want to work on.

“Obviously time is not on our side but we have been promised by the owners that all will be in place when the season starts. The stadium has to be done by February.

“Home is best. We played for the community and it won’t be good to play away from home. It’s meant for the community, it’s very prudent that we play in front of our fans who have been supporting us. And also we will have the home advantage when playing at Baobab,” said Gasitene.

After a successful campaign that saw them losing just two matches throughout the season in the Northern Region and earning the ticket to the Premiership, the Ngezi Platinum chairperson said there won’t be many changes to the side but will beef up the team and the technical side as they prepare for a more challenging competition.

“For the team we are starting our preparations the first week of January, that’s when we will be starting our trials.

“We are just going to beef up our team. Obviously we have players who can play in the Premiership but we want to strengthen our team. I can’t really say there are changes but obviously we will be beefing up, there won’t be total changes but additions to help our technical team,” said Gasitene. This was their second year in the Division One.

Last year they were also among strong contenders for the title as they finished fifth and won the Yadah TV Knock-out Cup.