After enduring years of inactivity, the softball national league is set for a return this weekend, albeit without a sponsor.
The league has been given a lifeline by the Botswana National Sports Commission(BNSC) with a cash injection of P937 000 for administration.
Softball and other struggling codes like volleyball were identified by the BNSC as codes in need of financial assistance to kick start their activities.
The two codes have struggled to secure sponsorship which has led to the near collapse of some clubs.
Therefore as part of the top six high impact sport codes locally, softball enjoyed this benefit of getting assistance from the commission.
In 2022, the sporting code was once more a beneficiary of the return to play grant post the covid-19 pandemic era.
“There won’t be any prize money because the grant is just for running of the league and giving out grants to teams to help them with preparations to honour fixtures. It has been difficult to secure a sponsorship, but we continue to cast our net wide and we remain hopeful despite the circumstances. I want to believe this league will bring in potential sponsors since we’ll now be active and more visible,” said Botswana Softball mouthpiece Dr Nonzie Payet in an interview with Voice Sport.
Despite the absence of the league, BSA has been make strides providing action through the Jwaneng Easter Softball tournament, Independence Day Challenge and the Selibe Phikwe Extravaganza.
The last time BSA had a proper league was in 2019/20 but it was cut short by the pandemic.
While preparations were in place to start the 2020/21 season in January, sporting activity came to a screeching halt in the face of skyrocketing Covid-19 cases.
The main sponsor at the time of Botswana Fibre Networks (BOFINET) who were on their last year of sponsorship deal signed back in 2018.
Since the deal elapsed, BSA has been hard at work trying to secure sponsors for the national league.
The relationship between BSA and BOFINET which ended in 2021 dated back to 2014 when the latter injected P1 million into the league.
The deal was later renewed in 2015 for a period of three years with an increased sponsorship value of P4.5 million.
A further extension was signed in 2018 with a value of P4.5 million to run the league with P1.5million per season.
