14 Mar 2024

Owing to financial constraints, the Botswana Netball Association (BONA) U-21 national team (Dinaletsana) has failed to partake in the 2025 Netball World Youth Cup Africa region qualifiers.

The qualifiers will be held in Pretoria, South Africa from March 17 to 23. The Netball World Youth Cup will be held in Gibraltar on September 19-28, 2025.

Speaking to BOPA, BONA president Malebo Raditladi-Nkgakile said despite selecting a formidable provisional team of 20 players from which the finals squad of 15 players was to be selected, their plan was frustrated by lack of funds.

She said camping expenses and expenditure associated with taking the team to the qualifiers was estimated to cost over P500 000.

Raditladi-Nkgakile said BONA was primarily dependent on the annual funding of P250 000 from the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC), but unfortunately the qualifiers were slotted at the end of the financial year at a time when their coffers were drained.

Following the suspension of sporting events due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past equally affecting the Netball World Youth Cup, which was scheduled to take place in Suva, Fiji, (December 2-11, 2021), the team was hopeful of making a comeback appearance on the regional and international arena only to be hampered by lack of funds.

Raditladi-Nkgakile said last year, BONA hosted a successful Africa Netball Cup, which was a challenge as the country was given the rights to host the event on the 11^th hour, which exhausted their coffers and denting their chances of securing funds within a limited time for the U-21 team.

“Usually, the Africa region qualifiers are held during winter between the months of June and July. Unfortunately this year they have been moved to March, making it difficult for us as we are yet to receive funding for the new financial year from the BNSC,” she said.

After selection of the provisional squad on February 17, the team was expected to have its maiden training camp on the weekend of February 24-25, in Gaborone.

 The team was to assemble on March 4 for fitness tests and assessments before going into the final camp, which was to run from March 5-13, only for the plan to be aborted due to lack of funds. ENDS