By SANDRA MWILA  –
THE Zambia Squash Association (ZSA) yesterday received a combined donation of K35,000 towards hosting of the 2014 Zambia Open tournament slated for November 20-23 in Lusaka.
MM Intergrated Steel Mills Limited and Neelkath Lime Limited contributed K10, 000 and K25, 000 respectively towards the Zambia Squash Open that was initially set for October 30 to November 2 before it was deferred.
ZSA president Norena Chiteba said so far K53, 000 from the K100, 000 budget has been raised for the competition and called on other companies to come on board and help host the event.
MM Integrated Steel Mills Limited chief executive officer Gopal Kedia presented the cheque on behalf of the company at the function that was attended by Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) board member Smart Mwitwa, Taj Pamodzi Hotel general manager Sanjay Sood and other ZSA officials.
Chiteba said the Zambia Squash Open was deferred the hosting of the tournament to November due to a clash with the Malawian Open where Zambian players are expected to compete in.
She said that the Malawi Open dates were already approved by the Africa Squash body and that Zambia had to push their tournament forward to allow participation of the players in the tournament.
“We are also aware that this is one tournament that has high participation from Zambia and we would also like to have Malawi participate in the Zambia Open as well. We also promise to stage a successful event,” she said.
ZSA was targeting about 50 entries from the local and international players, who would compete in the knock out format draw. Botswana and South Africa are the two countries that had so far confirmed their participation while Egypt, Namibia and Kenya were yet to send their confirmations.