By SANDRA MWILA –

ZAMBEEF Products Limited yesterday donated K15,000 to the Zambia Cricket Union (ZCU) for the staging of the Pepsi ICC Africa Division Two Under-19 World Cup qualifiers in Lusaka this weekend.
The company’s group marketing manager, Perry Siame said Zambeef was eager to be part of the development of minor sport in Zambia such as cricket.
Siame said it was Zambeef’s hope that the money would help ZCU in hosting a successful tournament.
“We are delighted to handover a cheque of K15, 000 to the ZCU and hope that these funds will assist them in their numerous activities to successful host International tournament,” Siame said.
Tournament organising committee chairperson, Haroon Ghumra said the response from the corporate world had been overwhelming and that ZCU was optimistic of meeting the budget by tomorrow.
Ghumra thanked Zambeef for the support towards the hosting of the biggest international cricket tournament to be held in Zambia.
“We have began our count down to the tournament today with the arrival of Mozambique who arrive at midnight today (yesterday) for the nine days tournament,” Ghumra said.
He named the participating countries in the ICC event set for August 9-17 in Lusaka as Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Swazilanda, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and hosts Zambia.
“We are all aware that Sierra Leone is one of the countries with the Ebola virus outbreak and we are waiting for a directive from the Ministry of Sport, Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) and our International mother body on whether Sierra Leone should participate or not,” he said.
Ghumra also said ICC had given ZCU $2,800 towards the hosting of the international tournament and that the money had been channelled towards accommodation for all participating countries, cricket balls, medals, trophies and a gala dinner at the end of the event.
Among other sponsors for the tournament are SCZ  (K45, 000), EC Mining (K5,000), Lusaka Hotel (K10,000), Magnum Security (K10,000) and Magic Advertising for identity cards.