Zim U19 team gets sponsorship

[CrimsonAvenger]

http://allafrica.com/stories/201208010219.html

THE Zimbabwe Under-19 cricket team got a morale boost ahead of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Australia later this month when they received a kit sponsorship from a local transport company Sabot yesterday.

The package, which is estimated at around US$11 000, include track suits, travelling bags, blazers, shirts, golf t-shirts playing kit, among other things.

The team is set to leave the country on Friday for Australia where they will battle it out against India, West Indies and Papua New Guinea in the group stages from August 12-26.

Zimbabwe cricket national development manager, Nick Singo, saluted the transport company and is confident the boys will do well in Australia.

"I would like to give a big thank you to Sabot for supporting the guys.

"This means a lot to us because it goes a long way in assisting the development of cricket in our country.

"As you are aware these boys are going to the World Cup and they are part of our developmental programme.

"The developmental programme has gone very well and I think, this being the apex of our programme, they are going to do well at World Cup in Australia.

"Sponsorship plays major role in the development of any sport because once you have it you are able to plan accordingly in time.

"We are working on a programme whereby we want to retain these guys for the next two years and keep them to together," said Singo.

The youthful side looks balanced and will have two warm-up matches against Namibia and England next week.

The team was involved in a series of high-profile preparatory matches against competitive sides such as the Zimbabwe A side and other local teams.

"We would have loved to play international friendlies but that was not possible so we had to make the best out of what we have and we played local sides.

"The boys are very happy and looking forward to represent their country in Australia.

"Some of the local teams we played were very strong and there was vast improvement in terms of quality in our team.

"If we can go and play to our potential we can challenge anyone.

"We will try win our first match against Papua New Guinea then knock over one of the better sides, India or West Indies, and qualify to the next major pool in the second round," said Harris.

[bayhaus]

Anyone knows who owns Sabot Transport...

[Flower power]

Billy Rautenbech owns Sabot