Impala Cricket vow to upgrade dilapidated nets at Cricket Club
Concerns were raised about the poor state of the facility with cricketers saying nets are not in a good condition and therefore not suitable to be used.
POLOKWANE – Limpopo Impala Cricket (LIC) has vowed to upgrade the dilapidated cricket nets at Polokwane Cricket Club.
This comes after a plethora of concerns raised by the community and budding cricketers about the poor state of the facility.
According to cricketers, nets are not in good condition therefore not suitable to be used.
Tommy Phiri, chief executive officer of LIC, said they have structured the process of the facility upgrades accordingly and have made progress in many of the areas identified to be upgraded at the facility.
“Our concrete nets are part of the plan and due to the upgrades done at our main field nets we are pressed for time to address all the projects simultaneously. We must all remember to acknowledge the progress made and achievements of an electronic scoreboard, scorers box and the quality of the outfield and its improvements over the past period. We have done a tremendous amount of work with the facility, and we have a huge amount of work still to be done, from expansion of the changing rooms to meet Cricket South Africa hosting standards to gating or turnstiles system. We once again appeal to the local businesses or sponsors to please come on board and help LIC.”
Phiri added that they have sent an application to the National Lottery and the funding proposed was mainly focused on facility upgrade.
“We also acknowledge our relationship with the Polokwane Municipality because they truly help when we need assistance. We have been knocking on doors and consulted with stakeholders who can help us get to the right businesses to start having a look at sponsoring or funding LIC, and time will change and have us to reach our milestone. We are repositioning our image, and this too will take time to help change the mindset within our province about LIC and cricket in general.”
Mantlako Sebaka, manager for sport and recreation at the municipality said the cricket facility is under the care of LIC after a lease agreement with hte federation last year.
“LIC has been given a four years and 11 months lease to manage the facility, including improvement of the said nets.”
