Softball trip hangs in the balance

as the national association does not have the money to fund the exercise.
The competition will be held in Cape Town from December 6 to 17 with 16 countries set to fight for honours.

The countries will be divided into two groups with Group A comprising the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, China, New Zealand, South Africa, Botswana and Czech Republic.
Pool B consists of Japan, Australia, Chinese Taipei, Argentina, Russia, Germany, Brazil and Zimbabwe.
The team was set to leave for South Africa yesterday but the Zimbabwe Softball Association were yet to raise the required money for the trip.

The team is set to have their first match on December 7.
ZSA president, Stonard Mapfumo, remained optimistic and said they are hopeful they will make it to the event.
“We haven’t been able to raise the money we need but we are actually hanging on.

“We are hopeful that something can happen, we haven’t totally called it off.
“We have break camp and the players are training in their various provinces as we try to run around.
“The reason why we sent them back is that we could not continue to incur more costs while we are looking for money to travel.

“Once we get the finances we will bring them in. We are suppose to be in South Africa by the 4th so that we can have time to prepare and attend the official opening ceremony on the 5th,” said Mapfumo.
In 2009, the Under-16 girls team failed to travel to Czech Republic after they were denied travel visas.
And the failure by the national association to raise money to cater for the Junior Women World Championships is a setback in the development of the sport in the country as the teams continue to miss such big events.

Mapfumo said in the event they fail to participate in the competition they will keep the team together for other events.
“Unfortunately if we fail to go it will be a big miss and disadvantage to us but we will try to keep the team together and look forward to other events,” said Mapfumo.

In a memo to the executive members, Mapfumo stated that the national association risks being suspended from the Africa Softball Confederation and International Softball Federation.
They will also have to pay a penalty fee of US$10 000 if they fail to take part in the championships.