By SANDRA MWILA-
MIDLANDS NETBALL Association of Zambia (MINA) will be staging the season-opening tournament this weekend at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka.
MINA general secretary, Lennox Kapila said 30 teams had confirmed participation in the tournament which has been sponsored by the regional body.
The tournament will be played in three categories with winners picking up cash prizes.
In the regulars’ category, the winners will walk away with K1, 500 while second prize will attract a K1,000.
There will also K800 for the third-placed team.
The winner in the veterans’ event will get K1,200 with the runners-up assured of K1,000 while K800 has been reserved for the third team.
Th men’s champions will pocket K1,000 while the losing finalists will pick up K700.
“This tournament has attracted 30 teams which is a good number to enhance competition which will develop netball in the country,” he said.
Kapila said MINA was looking forward to a good 2014 netball season and challenged the affiliates to put in their best.
And MINA has given a grace period of up April 30 for all clubs to pay their affiliation fees to enhance the planning for the 2014 season.
Kapila said the deadline to pay affiliation was March 31 but decided to extend to April 30 to allow all clubs to pay and avoid the penalty fees which were introduced last year at the annual general meeting.
