adminMzingaye Sibanda Sports Reporter
THE national women’s volleyball champions ZRP Raiders will not travel to Harare to face Black Rhinos and Harare Polytechnic in protest over the way clubs from the capital are treating them. Highlanders were left out of the weekend fixtures. The league enters its second week but the Bulawayo police outfit who were due to play Harare clubs which failed to turn up for the umpteenth time last weekend have said they would not travel. They are arguing that clubs should play home and away ties. In the past they have been the only ones fulfilling matches away from home.
Rhinos and Polytechnic’s failure to travel to Bulawayo left Vulindlela Moyo fuming last week as he felt his ZRP Raiders was being sacrificed. “Why should we travel if they do not to travel to us? It’s unfair. We must play our home fixtures first and failure to do so would mean that we will not travel as well,” he said.
The league fixtures are scheduled to be played in the capital for the next two weeks including the semi-finals and finals of both the men and women’s leagues.
Another Bulawayo representative Highlanders was left out of the weekend schedule after they did not confirm their participation in the weekend games.
They were set to play all their fixtures in the capital, but last weekend like the Harare teams, they failed to travel protesting against the way fixtures seem to favour clubs from the capital.
Highlanders’ secretary Khanyile Dlamini is not happy with the whole arrangement.
“If its a national league as they claim, it should be played everywhere, home and away, how can we play all games in Harare; it’s not fair at all to transport a team eight times to play there. It’s expensive,” she said.
Dlamini said they advised Zimbabwe Volleyball Association administrator Sibangane Mashasha that they would not travel until the issue was resolved.
“The problem is that they complain to the wrong people, we just asked if they were travelling and they did not respond so we had to leave them out of the weekend fixtures, their problem will be addressed,” said Mashasha.
Fixtures
Men: Support Unit v NABA, Stanbic v Rhinos, Support Unit v Tigers, ZRP Harare v University of Zimbabwe
Women: Harare Polytechnic v Tigers (men), ZRP Raiders v Rhinos, ZRP Raiders v Harare Polytechnic
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