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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe senior women softball team’s hopes of returning to continental competitions may suffer a stillbirth as their trip to South Africa for the WBSC Africa Division World championships qualifiers hangs in the balance. The event is running from Thursday until January 15 in Pretoria with 12 countries expected to play for the two slots to the world event in Japan in August.

Zimbabwe are hoping to be among the competing teams, but as of yesterday it was not certain if they will make the trip since the national association are struggling to raise enough resources to cater for their participation. National teams’ manager Kudzionera Madhodha yesterday said they were still running around to try and come up with the money for the team.

“The challenge we are facing is sponsorship. We sent out letters to companies and individuals, but they said we were late because they had already done their budgets. “To be frank the situation is if we get anything around $5 000, we would be very much grateful. We have tried to cut our budget (from $11 000) because we thought it was too much.

“We have had to cut our camps and some of the things we wanted. If we can get money for the basics, that’s transport, accommodation, food, equipment and for medicals, these are the most important things we are looking at right now. We have to fulfil this fixture after a long time,” said Madhodha.

The team was initially scheduled to go into camp last Friday, but had to cut the days and only came together yesterday at Mabelreign Girls High ahead of their expected departure tomorrow.

“The players got into camp today (yesterday). We have reduced the days of our camp to two days. Up to today we have not find any sponsors except for parents who want their children to go.

“In terms of preparing the team we are doing well because they have been training in their respective areas. Right now we have 16 players and the other two are on their way, we are expecting them tomorrow.

“The girls are not new to each other as they have been playing together for some time. We used to build national teams for competitions, but they would end up not going anywhere because of financial resources,” said Madhodha.

The top two teams that qualify for the World Championships will also get two of the five slots allocated to Africa for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. And because of that, the national association is desperate to have the side participating in South Africa.