MASERU — A lightning bolt on Monday forced the abandonment of a practice match between Lesotho and South Africa’s development side at Bambatha Tšita Sports Arena.
The bolt struck three players — Lesotho’s Tšeliso Sejake and South Africa’s Michael Nkambule and Sandile Gumede — but they were only left in shock.
The three players quickly recovered from their daze, with the South African players joining their team-mates for their post-match meal.
The match was called off soon after the bolt struck, a few minutes before half time.
The score was 0-0.
“A lightning bolt struck and some of the players were affected, but it was nothing serious,” Gary Mojela, the press officer of the South African team, told the Lesotho Times yesterday.
“Everything is fine now.”
The abandonment of the match capped the fiasco that had characterised the friendly game.
The match, scheduled to kick off at 5pm, only started an hour later because there were no assistant referees available to officiate the game.
It was an embarrassing moment for the Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) who had to pick two assistant referees from the spectators.
The match finally kicked off at 6:15pm before the lightning bolt prematurely ended the match.
It was the second meeting between Lesotho and the South African side, who drew nil-all in their first practice match last Thursday.
Meanwhile Lefa will hold a special indaba today to tackle, among other things, the association’s budget.
Lesotho will not participate in the 2010 African Nations Cup qualifiers because Lefa said it could not afford participating in the continental competition.
