Chronicle Editor
Fungai Muderere, Senior Sports Reporter
MANICALAND Province Pool vice-chairman Humphrey Riyano has said they are now ready to play host to the National Champions League (NCL) pool contest that will be played at Mutare’s Villa Spot on Saturday and Sunday.
The tournament was initially set to be held at the end of last month but was postponed by two weeks amid reports of a cyclone forecast that was set to affect Mozambique and eastern parts of the country.
Zimbabwe Pool Association (ZIPA) were in constant discussions with the Meteorological Service Department which was assessing both severity and direction of the cyclone.
“As a province, we have reached a climax stage of the preparations to host the two-day National Champions League (NCL) pool tournament. All is now set and we are now ready for the participants’ check in on Friday. The two-day tournament will be played at Villa Spot which is situated in Mutare urban, Dangamvura to be precise,” said a pool league official, Humphrey Riyano pledging top drawer hospitality to the participants that are going to invade their province.
“Great hospitality is guaranteed, everyone who will be travelling to Mutare should feel at home and secure and concentrate on taking part in a tournament where we expect that there will be stiff competition from provinces’ top teams. Accommodation is available for all the participants. There are secure hotels and lodges in Mutare and we will stand guided by teams’ budgets,” said Riyano.
The last edition of the NCL was held at the start of 2020 in Marondera, with the hosting province being Mashonaland East.
“The Covid-19 outbreak interrupted ours and other sporting programmes during 2020 and 2021 and while it is appreciated that pool programmes did not reach full throttle during 2022, we found it appropriate to re-introduce the national competition this year. In line with our policy of allowing every province the opportunity to host the event, this year’s edition will be hosted by Manicaland,” Zimbabwe Pool Association (ZIPA) technical director Wellington Chikasha.
The tournaments’ draw will be conducted on Friday and matches will be played according to the blackball rules.
Bulawayo will be represented by Bulawayo Elders, Queens Academy, Entumbane, Expendables, UBH, Nkulumane PC and Exchange.
Participation is mandatory for all clubs that finished in positions one to three in their respective provinces.
Clubs that will fail to take part in the event for various reasons will have to pay a non-participation fee of US$20.
Another penalty for non-participation will see a club being rendered ineligible to take part in their provincial league with regional executives expected to enforce the requirement.
Provinces which will have their teams take part should be members of ZIPA and those whose memberships were revoked will not be eligible to participate and registration for the event is pegged at US$100.
The tournament winner is set to take home a prize money of US$1 300 while second place will pocket US$700. Third place will be awarded US$400 followed by US$200 in fourth while numbers five to eight will get US$50 each.
There will be eight groups of clubs in the event and each set shall consist of three teams or more if the number of participants exceeds 24. A round-robin playing format will be applied and the two teams topping each group will proceed to the next round.
With regards to dress code, Chikasha said: “Players will be required to be in their club uniforms and to wear formal trousers and shoes. Where club uniforms are unavailable, a formal shirt must be won. No shots, gumboots, slippers shall be worn by players on the table as wearing of these will lead to automatic loss of that frame.”— @FungaiMuderere
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