Money? Let’s play for the pride‚ says netball boss

Organisers launched the Brutal Fruit netball premier league on Tuesday‚ but they were unable to give a breakdown of prize money and other incentives.

The 10-team league that kicks off on Saturday has a different look about it to previous seasons‚ with all matches scheduled for the Ellis Park indoor arena in Johannesburg or the University of Pretoria’s Rembrandt hall instead of being staged around the country.

Just three days out from the action Netball SA (NSA) president Cecilia Molokwane was unable to talk about prize money — last year’s winners‚ the Pretoria Jaguars‚ went to the Super League tournament for national champions in New Zealand — nor incentives‚ saying only they were in the pipeline.

Asked about the prize money‚ she replied that this was still being finalised.

“We don’t want to announce something that we’re not sure of ... it will be announced in due course ... We have something in the pipeline but we are not ready to announce it now.”

She was equally non-committal when questioned about rewards for player of the match.

“For now‚ let’s play for the pride of our provinces ... let’s play to be in the President’s XII that is going to be selected in the six weeks.

“We are not able to gtive the amount‚ it’s going to put us in a very wrong space‚” said Molokwane.

“The players should play netball for the love of the game. We want to turn professional ... if it means paying them at the end‚ we shall do so.”

The president added that the proposed bid for SA to host the netball World Cup in 2023 was still in the pipeline.

“We are still waiting for the relevant bodies to give us answers ... we are still waiting for answers from the department‚ we are still waiting for answers from Sascoc.

“It’s still on track until we announce it’s not on track.”