Gaborone — The Botswana Netball Association (BONA) has not been granted permission to host the 2023 Africa Netball Cup.
In September, some media reports stated that Botswana would host the championships because Uganda had pulled out.
However, director for sport development at Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC), Peaceful Seleka said in an interview that they were not in a position to host such an event.
He said budget for this financial year had long been approved and did not include hosting of Africa Netball Cup. He said when applications to host events were done on time, they budget for them, which was not the case with the netball cup.
He said BONA only requested for permission to host three months before the event.
"While we don't encourage that, had BONA demonstrated that they had funds to host the event, we would have possibly waived the two-year application requirement," he said.
According to BNSC hosting policy, application to host a regional competition has to be done a year before while for continental and world competitions, two and fours years in advance respectively.
However, Seleka said all was not cast in stone as they had previously made waivers for Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) as the International Cricket Council had covered all costs.
In fact, he said BCA had hosted three years in a row outside the set times with the help of their mother body (ICC).
He stressed that hosting of international sport competitions was in line with its Vision 2028 and national Vision 2036.
Meanwhile, BONA spokesperson Mokereste Mokereste admitted that Africa Netball made 'last minute' request for BONA to host the tournament.
He said the onus was on BONA and Africa Netball to make a plan on how to handle the issue since it was an emergency.
The Africa Netball Cup or African Netball Championships is a netball competition held every after two years with teams across Africa competing for the top price.
Botswana's national netball team competed in the last edition of the cup, which was held in Namibia in 2021 and finished in position seven.
This year, about 10 countries were expected to compete in women's category and five in the men's category.
The championships are to be held from November 28- December 6.
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