adminSenior Sports Reporter
THE National Rugby League management has set a two-week target to get a sponsor to rescue their programme. If they fail to meet the target, they will call a premature end of the 2014 season.
The country’s rugby flagship league was put on ice at the beginning of the month after clubs notified the NRL leadership that they had been hit by a cash-crunch, hindering their efforts to fulfill their league matches.
With only six rounds of matches left before the season ends, NRL remains hopeful of getting a sponsor to take care of teams’ travelling expenses.
“To be honest, we are losing time with every passing moment and we have been keeping tabs on potential sponsors. In terms of time, if we resume our league next week we will finish our season at the end of November. We remain hopeful of getting a corporate partner who will help us end our programme before the festive season.
“However, if we stay for another two weekends without action, then we will be forced to take the unpopular decision which is to call off the season. As it is, because of the time that we have spent without any action the players are losing momentum and if they continue being on wind-down it becomes difficult for them to regain their fitness,” said Noddy Kanyangarara, the NRL chairman.
He said it will be unfortunate for their marketing drive if they are to hastily end their season whose competition has reached climax with four clubs Old Hararians, Harare Sports Club, Old Georgians and Matabeleland Busters all competing for two home semi-finals.
“There are corporates that we are hoping will come on board and our idea is to have them sailing through with us up to the end of the year so that they familiarise themselves with the sport. Resuming our games gives us a product that we can sell to potential partners for next season,” Kanyangarara said.
The NRL has also been hoping that the Zimbabwe Rugby Union which gets a grant of 90,000 pounds sterling for its programmes from the International Rugby Board every year can bail them out.
ZRU pushed for an upward review of the IRB grant given to the national association to enable them to embark on their developmental programmes.
The NRL crisis comes barely a month after IRB Regional Development Manager for Africa Jean-Luc Barthes’ visit to Zimbabwe where he discussed ZRU’s future operations.
Barthes’ visit is in line with the IRB’s governance protocols and the ZRU’s commitment to maintain accountability and responsibility for the game in Zimbabwe.
NRL Table as of September 1
P W L D F A Dif Bonus Pts Total
Old Hararians 9 7 2 0 510 105 405 10 28 38
Harare Sports Club 9 7 1 1 514 109 405 7 30 37
Old Georgians 9 7 2 0 489 112 377 7 28 35
Mat’land Busters 8 6 1 1 242 106 136 5 26 31
Western Panthers 8 4 4 0 151 445 -294 3 16 19
Old Miltonians 9 3 6 0 174 258 -84 5 12 17
Mutare Sports Club 9 3 6 0 105 297 -182 2 12 14
Gweru Sports Club 9 1 8 0 169 350 -181 3 4 7
Zvishavane Bulls 8 0 8 0 35 607 -572 0 0 0
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