adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
THIS year will see the birth of the much-awaited Premier Handball League which will help turn Zimbabwe into one of the major forces of the sport in Africa.Amon Madzvamuse, president of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, said yesterday that they held a special general meeting in December last year where they adopted a number of resolutions which include the formation of the Premier Handball League this year.
“We postponed our end-of-the-year tournament in December last year due to a hive of activities and to pave way for new activities that were supposed to be polished by the end of 2013 which include the registration of clubs.
“Therefore, we called for a special general meeting in December last year which saw the adoption of our constitution and the adoption of our invitation to compete in the Interamnia World Cup tournament in Teramo, Italy, in July this year. We also adopted the registration of clubs and the running of these clubs by the soon-to-be-formed Premier Handball League.
“Now the public will first taste the constitutional acid on January 25 where all clubs will be participating in the end-of-the-year tournament which was initially supposed to be held in December last year,” Madzvamuse said.
Midlands Province’s handball club Budiriro Rovers will host this tournament with the assistance of the Midlands Provincial Board.
“Preparations to stage this tournament are already underway and the good thing about the 2014-2015 season is that the ZHF is no longer running the show alone but will be running it with the assistance of the clubs, council members and commissions.
“So, we are also going to see the birth of the Premier Handball League interim executive at the same tournament who will be given the mandate to run this league. This will also ease unnecessary misunderstandings and pave way for total commitment among the Zimbabwean handball family.
“The ZHF will (now) not be blamed in any way as we’ve taken the smart game of handball to the people and we will be there to guide and enforce whatever is agreed. We managed to put our country on the map regionally and internationally to the extent of getting attention of other bigger countries like Italy who have invited us to take part in the Interamnia World Cup tournament in July this year.”
Like the Partille Cup, which is staged annually in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Interamnia World Cup is also rated as one of the biggest handball tournaments in the world and it also attracts top handball players from all over the world.
In fact, the Interamnia World Cup can be considered as the handball Olympics. It is the largest international handball competition in the world and it is contested by men’s and women’s national teams from all over the world.
Madzvamuse also said that they were looking forward to a fruitful 2014 season as they recently managed to meet the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Andrew Langa, at the Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex where “we forwarded our challenges and he promised to look into them”.
But it is the formation of the Premier Handball League which is expected to create more interest into the sport in this country as the ZHF have in the past years been operating without a viable national league at senior level.
Madzvamuse said they were expecting to have 40 clubs (both men and women) from around the country that will take part in the belated January 25 end-of-the-year tournament and it is only after this event that the Premier Handball League will come into existence.
“We agreed that each of our 10 provinces should send at least four clubs (men and women) to this tournament and this will then give us a clear picture of how many teams will be participating in the Premier Handball League. But we have also resolved to split it into two regions – Northern and Southern Region.
“So, this means that each region will have five provinces and it is from these regions that the teams or clubs that will play in the Premier Handball League will be drawn from,” Madzvamuse said. The ZHF boss also said that they have agreed to adopt the Referees Commission and the Coaches Commission whose mandate will be to run the affairs of the match officials and coaches respectively.
“Their (the two commissions) terms of reference and induction workshops are all set and ready. The Referees Commission has Innocent Kanosvova as chairman and he will be assisted by Bekhezela Ncube while Brighton Muzanenhamo will be their secretary.”
The Referees Commission will be responsible of recruiting new referees and enforcing new laws of the game and they will officiate at all league games.
“Last but not least, they are expected to produce referees for regional and international assignments,” Madzvamuse said. The Coaches Commission will, meanwhile, be headed by Mutare-based Alan Mandeya and Madzvamuse said they are expected to, among other things, recruit new coaches and to enforce or come up with rules and regulations of the game of handball.
“These coaches are of vital importance to the ZHF as they assist us in the formulation of (the) clubs’ calendar of events and the running of the game in line of the Referees Commission,” Madzvamuse said.
Online Reporter