The Sunday Mail
Lawson Madzivanyika
Lack of sponsorship in the Harare Indoor Hockey League has not deterred clubs from registering to participate in this season’s competition.
League chairman Mandla Mataure revealed that 36 teams, up from last year’s 30, are taking part in both the men and women’s leagues with the first round of matches having been played last Monday.
Twenty one teams are competing in the women’s league while 15 teams are vying for supremacy in the men’s league.
Mataure attributed the increase to the growing popularity of the sport.
“At the moment, the Harare Hockey Indoor League does not have any sponsors and as a board we rely on funds raised from player and team annual subscriptions. However, this is not stopping us from recording success.
“The increase in the number of teams is a positive development, a sign that the sport is gaining popularity. The number of women’s teams increased from 14 to 21 while the number of male teams fell from 16 to 15,” he said.
Mataure added that the league is engaging schools as part of efforts to increase uptake of the sport. “We want to set out a clear development path for the youngsters, hence our drive into schools. This programme will ultimately feed our local league and the national teams.
“It’s rather unfortunate that the school term has been cut short and consequently the league will end in March as compared to last year’s longer school term which enabled us to play more hockey and even begin to train players in other roles such as umpiring, judging and administration,” said Mataure.
