By GWEN CHIPASULA –
THE Zambia Bowling Association (ZBA) are in a race against time to raise K400,000 needed to host the African States Bowling Tournament set for next weekend to avoid facing stiff punishment from the World Bowls Federation (WBF).
ZBA general secretary Foster Banda said the budget has since been reduced to K500,000 from K800,000 and that the association was targeting to raise at least K400,000 to stage the event.
Banda said in an interview that the ZBA has so far managed to raise K100,000 and that failure to host the tournament might see Zambia get a ban from all international tournaments for a considerable period of time.
“We were picked to host this tournament in 2015 and failure to do so will not only lead to our suspension but also failure to have this tournament because no country can take up an offer to host at such a short notice,” she said.
She said the budget was reduced after Swaziland withdrew from the tournament and called on the corporate world to come on board and help the association stage the event.
“We need to at least raise K400,000 as that would help us stage the competition because the other bigger issue apart from providing meals for the players is maintenance of the bowling alley which we have already started working on,” she said.
The participating countries are Botswana, South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia.
