Central Region Netball League sponsorship hiked

Central Health Limited (CHL) has disclosed that it will renew its Central Region Netball League (CRNL) sponsorship and hike the package from last season’s K2.5 million.

The company bailed out the league after the CRNL had gone over five years without sponsorship.

CHL director Victor Madhlopa said in an interview yesterday: “The deal we signed was for one year, but there was an option for a renewal which we will exercise.”

Though he refused to disclose how much will be added to the sponsorship, he was optimistic that the financial adjustment would make the league more exciting.

“We want to introduce some incentives in the competition just to make it more exciting. When we are about to re-launch the league in April we shall announce how much will be added. Currently, we are in discussions with the league on the logistics,” he said.

CRNL chairperson Charity Malanga welcomed the news, saying the sponsorship has already proved to be fruitful.

“Our players who used to be inactive due to lack of league games are competitive. The evidence is that we had a number of players in the Under-21 national team that came from our league. I don’t think they could have been considered if we didn’t have an active league,” she said.

Malanga also linked goal shooter Joyce Mvula’s move to United Kingdom based outfit Manchester Thunder with the CRNL sponsorship. The Blue Eagles Sisters player flew out of the country on Wednesday.

She was scouted following her exploits during Malawi’s impressive performances during the 2015 Netball World Cup and the Fast5 World Netball Series games played last year in Australia.

“If our league was not active Joyce would not even have been in the squad that played at the [Fast5] tournament,” she said. n