By Tione Andsen
Lilongwe, Mana: Central Region Handball Association has expressed desire to establish regional league in order to improve the game.
Central Region Handball Association Chairperson, Alex Simenti disclosed this Sunday when the Association hosted a two day handball tournament for both boys and girls at Bingu National Stadium (BNS) in Area 48, Lilongwe.
He said the establishment of the league next year would help to attract more youth to venture in to the game which was being viewed new.
Simenti added that their committee has visited all the districts in the region and they are ready to start establishing teams to compete in a league.
“We are hopeful with the support from Chibuku Products, handball as a game will have the right support and patronize particularly the youth,” he observed.
The Chairperson said they have organized the two day tournament in order to bring residents of Lilongwe and surrounding areas to appreciate the game of handball.
Simenti applauded participating teams for their fine displays during the tournament saying this would be used as a yardstick in preparation for the handball Zone 6 competition to be staged next year.
“The event attracted seven teams namely Kamuzu Barracks, State House, Mvama, Don Bosco, Wills, Kamuzu Institute and Cobbe Barracks from Zomba. Each team was paying a registration fee of K 50,000 and teams were coming in pairs as boys and girls,” he explained.
He thanked Chibuku Products for pumping in K500, 000.00 for the tournament saying their financial assistance would go a long way to developing the game in the region.
He urged the Media to help in providing coverage to the handball games so that they should generate interest among the residents.
Operations Manager for Chibuku Products, Werlem Sitima pledged the company’s commitment to ensuring that the game of handball was developed in the region.
He said his company has lots of interest to developing the game in the country saying there was need to generate more participation of the youth.
“It is a new game, though we are not happy with our football standards although they are improving of late but still, we never know that Malawi will be better in some of these new games,” Sitima added.
He said although the game might look new to most people but the game has been there for some time and other countries have been playing the game and Malawi should not be left behind. .
The Manager said that, “Chibuku like to be associated with development of sorts of things and one of this is game of handball with our products like Shake-shake and Super.”
Sitima affirmed their commitment to supporting the tournament next year in a bigger way.
