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Collin Matiza Sports Editor
SCORES of Zimbabwean handball players are expected to converge in Gweru this coming weekend for the belated end-of-the-year Club Championship tournament which will also be used to launch the newly-formed Handball Premier League. This tournament will be hosted by Gweru-based handball club Budiriro Rovers and it will be held over two days, on Saturday and Sunday, at Budiriro Primary School in Mkoba 11.

Amon Madzvamuse, president of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, said yesterday that all the clubs, which recently “officially” registered with his federation, are expected to take part in this tournament which was initially scheduled to be staged in December last year but was moved to this month.

“We are now going to use this tournament as our season-opener for 2014 and it will be hosted by Gweru-based Budiriro Rovers who are one of the clubs who recently officially registered with the ZHF to be part of the soon-to-be-born Handball Premier League.

“We are expecting about 40 (male and female) clubs, who will be drawn from our 10 Provinces or from our two regions, that is Northern and Southern Region, to take part in this two-day event which will be held on Saturday and Sunday.

“And as the ZHF president, I’m delighted with this move or development as it is also going to give birth to the Premier Handball League’s interim executive committee which will run all handball club affairs in this country on behalf of the ZHF,” Madzvamuse said.

The ZHF boss also said the PHL interim executive committee, after its formation, is expected to come up with the fixtures of the league which they are going to run from this season.

“The most interesting thing is that we are going to see handball being played across the country at senior level for the first time in Zimbabwe as we now have a number of clubs in place and they are prepared to take part in the PHL which will be divided into two regions — Northern and Southern Region.

“And as the president of the ZHF, I would like to appeal to all retired or former handball players to come out of retirement to join the clubs that we currently have in place or form their own clubs and register with us so that they can also play in the PHL from this year.

“I believe that there are a lot of retired handball players who still want to play the sport but were unable to do so because there was no league in place and now that we are going to have this interim PHL executive committee in place and running the league, gone are the days where we are going to have all these woes,” Madzvamuse said.

The ZHF also held an induction workshop for their Referees Commission and Coaches Commission at Girls High School in Harare last Friday and these two bodies will help the PHL interim executive committee in running their league.

“All this was done in a constitutional manner and it will give a sigh of relief to the national executive board, which is the ZHF, as we have all along been under immense pressure to form this league,” Madzvamuse said.

Meanwhile, Senzeni Bushe, one of the organisers of this weekend’s end-of-the-year Club Championship tournament in Gweru, said yesterday that all was in place and there were more than ready to stage this historic event.

“Everything is at an advanced stage and 20 teams have already confirmed their participation in this tournament and we are expecting more to do so by the end of business on Friday.

“From the 20 clubs that have already confirmed their participation in this tournament, 15 are from outside Gweru while five are from this city and the majority of these clubs are expected to start arriving in Gweru on Friday,” Bushe said.