By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

THE Zambia Squash Association (ZSA) has invited a Zimbabwe-based World Squash certified referee for this weekend’s Zambia Open Squash championship to be staged at Lusaka Club.
ZSA president Norena Chiteba said in an interview yesterday that Lucky Mlilo would be the referee for the international tournament.
Chiteba said the presence of Mlilo would add credence to the Zambia Open which will not just have the best of Zambian players taking part but also but some top players from the region.
“We just want to raise the bar I bit here. We are also privileged to have Lucky Mlilo a, World Squash Certified Referee with us for this event. This is good for the tournament.
“Mr Mlilo is a certified trainer and will also conduct a mini-workshop for our would-be referees in the country,” she said.
Chiteba said the best of players from Zambia had signed up for the tournament with most of them already in the country for the competition.
The Zambian charge will be led by South Africa-based players like Kelvin ‘The Kelvinator’ Ndhlovu, Ray Simbule, Manda Chilambwe and Mwinga Lengwe while the women will look up to star player Sharon Chimfwembe.
Chiteba expressed excitement that the Zambia Open was finally coming back on the local calendar and was hopeful it grows and becomes a yearly event.
“We haven’t had the Zambia Open for the past four years and we thought of inviting other countries to raise the profile of our game. We are grateful for the support we are receiving from the corporate world,” she said.
The tournament has a budget of K100,000.
Chiteba said there were a number of companies that were helping the association make the 2014 Zambia Open possible and named some of the companies as MM Integrated Steel Mills Limited, Neelkanth Lime and Pamodzi Hotel.
Others are Zamefa, Finance Bank and Chrismar Hotel, MIB Security Services, Kupes Apartments, Oriental Quarries, Shreeji Investments and Zurani Technologies Limited.