Sibanda bows out

vice-president when Sibanda was in charge.
As largely anticipated, Falkenberg took over as ZRU boss from the former Harare Sports Club chairman during an annual meeting at Old Georgians.
Falkenburg, who is a former chairman of Old Georgians, will have banker, Aisha Tsimba, who represents the Northern Region, as his deputy.
Sibanda’s term ended on a positive note after his board managed to complete a number of projects both on the administrative side and on the playing field.
The big one came at the annual meeting where a new constitution was adopted.
Previously the ZRU constitution allowed only for yearly terms in office and the Falkenburg executive committee will be the first one to get a four-year term in charge as provided by the new constitution.
Sibanda said he was leaving the ZRU leadership a hugely satisfied man.
“I would say I am content with the developments that took place while I was still in office,” he told The Herald.
“I did what I could do and what I was allowed to do by the resources, finance and the people that I worked with during those days.
“The Union is not just run by myself as there are a number of other people that I worked with and if we shared the same vision or goals then this would mean I would do more and I would have done more than I did.
“It’s unfortunate that I did not achieve as much as I would have wanted to.
“My primary goal when I got into office three years ago was to get back the structures we once had in the sport which I think I achieved.
“Coming to the Sables, they needed to play more games and needed to be recognised as a national team, regain their place back in the game and lead as the flagship team and that is where we needed a lot of focus on.”
Sibanda travelled to the east where he linked the Sables to Shujaa of Kenya and the Cranes of Uganda and the three countries formed the new tournament called the Victoria Cup tri-nations tournament.
And last year the Sables emerged victorius, winning the tournament.
The Sables also went on to win the Africa Cup Group 1B tournament that saw them gain promotion to the World Cup qualifying Group 1A finishing as the highest climber of the year on the IRB 2010 World Rankings and gaining their highest ever ranking since the inception of the ranking system.
The year 2011 was also a great year for Sibanda as he successfully wooed and remarried the Union and Delta Beverages through their Lion Lager brand.
“We also needed to see talent from the junior structures such as the Under-20 filtering into the Sables,” said Sibanda.
The Harare businessman, however, said it was not all rosy as he faced stiff challenges along the way, especially in looking for sponsorship, and he left the Union with a deficit of more than US$150 000.
The debt includes money that was borrowed from individuals who include Sables’ committee chairman Dumile Moyo, the Rainbow Tourism Group, outstanding players’ allowances and the travel agents.
ZRU general manager, Grant Mitchell, acknowledged the gravity of the financial situation and said they did not have sufficient sources of income and they were “currently broke till the next grant.”
The ZRU has been getting an annual grant of 72 000 British Pounds every year from the International Rugby Board.
Mitchell said this will only come in the first week of next month and, as at December 31 last year, the Union’s bank account had a just over US$1 000.
“But all the same we also managed to get some developmental programmes in schools and some of the schools that had stopped playing the game eventually started playing,” added Sibanda.
“I still have rugby at heart but I will not be taking any big position in the administration but I have junior development as my passion.
“At the moment I am involved with the Mbare Rugby Academy and I would like to continue with that.”