Rainbow Paints Netball League kicks off in Blantyre

Blantyre, Malawi-The Blantyre and Districts Netball Committee (BDNC) launched this year's Rainbow Paints Netball League on Saturday, May 13, 2023, at the Blantyre Youth Centre, writes Happy Valirani.

The event marked the beginning of the 2023 Southern Netball League campaign, which features 16 teams from the region.

Vitumbiko Mwandemange Gubuduza, the chairperson of BDNC, expressed her gratitude to Rainbow Paints for sponsoring the league for over 13 years. She said the company has shown great commitment and support to the development of netball in the country.

"It feels great but, most importantly, humbling. If you look at Rainbow Paints, they have been sponsoring this league for over 13 years. I think that is a great contribution to the sport, and it is also humbling to note how committed they have been to making sure that we have a tournament like this and that the league is running. We are very grateful," she said.

Gubuduza also said that the Rainbow Paints league has greatly contributed to the Malawi national netball team, the Queens, as many players come from the teams that are playing in the Blantyre and districts netball league.

The guest of honour at the launch was Justice Rachael Sophie Sikwese, who is a judge of the High Court of Malawi and a judge of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal.

She commended the Queens for putting Malawi on the map in terms of sport despite the poor infrastructure for netball as compared to other world netball teams.

Justice Sikwese also challenged the players to start investing in businesses and education, as there will come a time when they will no longer be able to play netball.

She said it is time to plan for their future so they can be self-reliant and independent.

“All these players have destinies. What I am trying to stress to them is that netball has a limit in terms of physical ability, so there will come a time when they will no longer be able to play netball. So it's important that at this time, when they are still active, they start thinking about what they want to be when they retire from playing netball. That is an individual choice, and netball should give them an opportunity to make informed decisions," said Justice Sikwese.Rainbow Paints has been pumping money into the Blantyre and District Netball League since 2010. This year, the company maintained the K12 million package of last year. Wezi Chirwa is the technical sales and marketing executive at Rainbow Paints.

"We have been good supporters of netball for more than 13 years now.We found it necessary because we saw that netball was lacking support and representation, so we thought that it could be a good idea for us to start supporting the sport. That's why we come back every year as dedicated supporters of BDNC," Chirwa said.During the launch, the Blantyre Tremors beat the Chilomoni Sisters 56-36.

In other games, Imosys defeated Prison Sisters 58-45; Machinjiri Sisters went down to Air Force 25-46; Chileka Sisters won 38-30 over Gerald Tasaukadala; and Mubas lost to Shizaella 25-28.