The official sponsors of the Blantyre District Netball League, Rainbow Paints says they are impressed with the successes and progress made this far in their 10 year sponsorship to the league.
Rainbow Paints Technical Sales and Marketing Executive Wezzie Chirwa made the remarks during the official launch of the 2022 Blantyre and District Netball League BDNL on Saturday at Blantyre Youth Center.
Chirwa said the league has made strides including being able to produce players to the national team, the Queens and even international players who started their career in the BDNL.
“Since we started sponsoring the league, there has been a lot of developments, one of the most notable one is that almost three quarters of players in the national team comes from this league. And also some of our international players have come from this league and we see this as a big achievement on our part. Not only are we helping Blantyre and District Netball League but we also helping the national league”. She said.
And on a lighter note, Rainbow Paints has also hiked the sponsorship for the 2022 season from K7 Million to K12 Million as part of honoring their 10th anniversary of bankrolling the league.
“We have decided to raise the sponsorship this year because this is our 10th year sponsoring the league so this is in honor of our 10th anniversary and also we have noticed the economic challenges that the country is currently facing and we thought that it is a good idea for us to raise the sponsorship to help the league achieve it’s goals”. She added.
BDNL General Secretary Annie Hanjahanja said they are very delighted with the raise in sponsorship this season considering the current economic status.
And if their calendar will not be affected by the national team engagements in the Confederation of Southern Africa Netball Associations Tri- Nations games this month, Hanjahanja said they will work hand in hand with Netball Association of Malawi NAM on how best they can look into the matter.
” Of course it will be affected but we work hand in hand with NAM,
today(Saturday) they have released players to come and play the opening matches and for the coming weeks maybe if they will not be released then when they come back from their games they will be playing midweek games. Two teams that will affect our league are First Choice Tigresses and Kukoma Diamonds, the rest will be playing their normal games”. She said.
And on his part, Netball Association of Malawi Vice President Chimwemwe Bakali said netball is not fully supported and their partnership with Rainbow Paints it is always a good news to see them pumping financial resources to the game.
“This is good news to netball as you are aware netball is not fully supported and when those that are in partnership with the game come back it’s always good news and particularly this time around where the world is going through economic hardships for them to come and adjust the sponsorship from last season, we are so grateful for the gesture”. Said Bakali.
Among other games played on Saturday, Kukoma Diamonds won with 55 baskets against their rivals First Choice Tigresses who got 34, Gerald Tasaukadala lost to Machinjiri Sisters with 25 against 45, Cobbe Queens slammed Chileka sisters with 42 baskets against 8, MUBAS lost to Prophet Mbewe Sisters with just a small margin as they got 39 against 41 Just like Prison Queens who also lost to Imosys NC with 41 against 42 baskets and Shizaella Queens won with 56 baskets against Chilomoni Sisters who got 29.