Sheriff to help Zim handball

are living outside the country and they include forgotten former middle and long-distance star runner Brian Sheriff.

The Zimbabwe Handball Federation this year sent a large contingent of 96 athletes and officials to the Partille Cup which ran from July 1 to 6 in Gothenburg where Zimbabwe joined 40 other handball-playing nations from around the globe at one of the world’s biggest sporting events.

At this year’s Partille Cup, which attracted a record 1 120 teams and 21 500 participants from across the globe, Zimbabwe were represented by three school sides – Harare’s Girls High School, Howard High School of Chiweshe and Chishawasha Mission Primary School from Chishawasha in Mashonaland East Province – and Mashrhino, a girls select side, which was picked from the Mashonaland West Province.

In Gothenburg, Harare’s Girls High School represented the country in the girls Under-21 section, Howard High School competed in the boys Under-18 competition while Chishawasha Mission Primary School and Mashrhino took part in the boys and girls Under-12 categories respectively.

And Team Zimbabwe’s arrival in Gothenburg and their participation at this year’s Partille Cup was keenly followed by a number of people who backed the Southern African country throughout this competition and among them was former crack middle and long-distance runner Sheriff.

Interestingly, Sheriff, who is now based in Hiroshima, Japan, did not know that handball is also played in Zimbabwe and the country’s participation at the Partille Cup took him by “complete” surprise and he was one of the many people who quickly pledged to assist the Zimbabwe Handball Federation in developing the sport in the country.

Speaking from his base in Hiroshima, Sheriff told The Herald last week during the Partille Cup that he was “more than keen” to help the ZHF in their development programme and pledged to source some handball equipment for them through a Japanese sports goods manufacturing company, Mikasa Corporation.

Besides manufacturing sports equipment, Mikasa are also a major water pump bearing maker and a few other industrial products.
And Sheriff (51) indicated that he would also like to link the ZHF with Mikasa in his endeavour to help the Zimbabwean handball mother body to develop the sport in this country.

In fact, Sheriff, who now works for Mikasa, last week had a meeting with the company’s president, Taketoshi Saeki, where the two discussed the possibilities of “marrying the Japanese company and the ZHF”.

Sheriff also described the impending association between Mikasa and the ZHF as a major opportunity to develop the sport of handball in Zimbabwe and he added that their objective was to do what other sports goods manufacturers have failed to do in the past – entering Africa directly.

“I’m consulting (with) Mikasa Sports (and) the president of Mikasa is very keen on doing something for our country (Zimbabwe).
“In fact, I’ve just come from a meeting with Mr Saeki (the Mikasa president). We told him about handball in Zimbabwe – he was totally stunned and smiling like hell! I took two gentlemen to the (Zimbabwean) Embassy in Japan on Monday (last week) to talk about Mikasa and Zimbabwe. Lloyd Sithole (counsellor at the Zimbabwean Embassy) was more than helpful . . . So we are very positive from the Hiroshima side.

“We make 13 official handball balls for major competitions, from professional to soft children’s balls. Our objective is to do what other makers have failed to do – enter Africa directly.

I am talking directly with the actual product developers in the factory and headquarters so anything to fit Zimbabwe’s needs will be directly addressed by Mikasa.
“We have been watching the sad state of Zimbabwe in the international sports arena. Remember that I was one of four global product development consultants for Reebok. My knowledge of the global sporting goods industry will be useful for getting things fixed back home (in Zimbabwe).

“The Mikasa view is wider than the regular sports brands. We are leaving no options behind. The Mikasa people now understand that we are a family that stands together and fights together. They see us Zimbabweans as the solution for Africa.

They see us as the model for correcting the wrongs we have been persistently subjected to as Africans in general . . . This is the very message that I have related to the Hiroshima people – the companies. They have proof that their media have been guilty of hiding the facts about Zimbabwe’s situation going back 50 years,” Sheriff said.

Sheriff is not the only Zimbabwean who has expressed an interest in helping handball to grow in this country as UK-based Ndaba Nyathi has also come on board and would like to help the ZHF in their development programme at grassroots level.

He is also looking at taking some talented Zimbabwean handball players to Qatar to ply their trade there.
Nyathi said there are some clubs in Qatar who have been enquiring about handball players in Zimbabwe and “I have always dismissed them because I thought the sport was not being played back home in Zimbabwe but thanks to the Partille Cup, I now know that handball is very much alive in my country.

“In fact, almost all football teams have a handball team associated with them in Qatar. I will familiarise myself with the sport and see where we can take it in Zimbabwe,” Nyathi said.

Qatar will host the World Handball Championships in 2015 and Nyathi would like to see Zimbabwe among the finalists there.
Three other Zimbabweans, Pedzai Muusha, Audrey Madakiwa and Eldridge Dhliwayo, who are all based in Gothenburg, also pledged to work hand-in-hand with the ZHF when they send representative sides to the next Partille Cup competitions in Sweden.

In fact, all the 96 members of Team Zimbabwe who participated at this year’s Partille Cup were hosted by the Dubliner Restaurant in central Gothenburg after they were introduced to its owner, Ian McGlinchey, who also happens to be a Zimbabwean, by Muusha and Madakiwa.

McGlinchey, a former Plumtree Boys High School pupil here in Zimbabwe, also pledged to support Team Zimbabwe in their next visit to Gothenburg for the Partille Cup.
Meanwhile, Amon Madzvamuse, the ZHF president, said they were more than willing to enter into a partnership with Mikasa which he said would go a long way in developing handball in Zimbabwe and making it one of the most popular sporting disciplines in this country.

“As you are all aware, we, the ZHF, have been battling to get some decent sponsors for our development programmes and the news that Mikasa, through our former star middle and long-distance runner Brian Sheriff, are willing to give us a helping hand in developing the sport in this country is sweet music into our ears.

“We are more than ready to enter into a strategic partnership and forge an everlasting alliance with Mikasa which I personally think will see us grow from strength to strength in our continued efforts to develop handball in Zimbabwe and make the country one of the major handball powerhouses in Africa if not in the world.”

The ZHF boss said they were also looking forward to promoting the Mikasa brand here in Zimbabwe before spreading it to other Southern African countries and to the rest of the continent.

“I understand that the quality of its products and the modern and dynamic design of its balls are precious tools that contribute to enhance the beauty and exposure of this spectacular game, thus bringing a strong added-value to this discipline,” Madzvamuse said on the sidelines of the Partille Cup in Gothenburg last week.

“In fact, we have a number of development projects and programmes in the pipeline and if Mikasa comes in as our partner, this will help us to implement them fully and I’ve no doubt that Zimbabwe will be a force to be reckoned with in handball in the world,” Madzvamuse added.

In another development, the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Ignatius Chombo, is expected to host a “welcome home” party for the Mashrhino players, who took part in this year’s Partille Cup, at Mazvikadei today.

Mashrhino were a girls Under-12 select side that was picked from the Mashonaland West Province and Chombo, who is also the Member of Parliament for Zvimba North, was among the team’s chief sponsors of their trip to Sweden.

The team was also backed by Zimplats and a number of farmers in the Mashonaland West Province.