Leemisa Thuseho
NETBALL administrator, Matšepo Mohau, will fly the national flag high as she is set to participate in the 2023 Netball World Cup tournament as an international volunteer.
The tournament will run from tomorrow, 28 July, to 6 August at Cape Town International Convention Centre in South Africa.
This will be the first time the global showpiece is being held on African soil.
The Lesotho national team is not part of the showpiece as it failed to qualify and in addition, no local official or umpire was invited for this event.
However, the country will at least have Mohau who will form part of the group of volunteers working in the games.
The volunteers will be deployed for a variety of roles such as hospitality ticketing and courtside assistant.
Mohau left the country yesterday for South Africa and this will be her first time participating in such a global event.
Mohau is a former Lesotho Netball Association (LNA) public relations officer.
Speaking to this publication this week, Mohau said she applied to volunteer at this event in on 2 February this year, and was happy to become part of history as this is the first netball world cup tournament to be held in Africa.
Mohau said she believed this would be a good platform for her to network and exchange ideas with netball people from all corners of the globe.
“I will be leaving for South Africa this week to take part in the netball world cup as an international volunteer,” Mohau told the Lesotho Times.
“I’m happy to be part of this big event which is happening on the African soil for the first time. I think this will be a good opportunity for me as an administrator in the sport to learn a number of things as far as event-organisation and management are concerned.
“I will have a chance to engage and exchange ideas as well as build relations with netball people of different levels from various countries.”
Apart from exposure, Mohau is also hopeful the event will help her enhance her administrative skills.
Mohau, who is also the team manager of local netball club, City Eagles, said this was not the first time she applied for this role as she initially tried in 2019 when the games were held in England.
Even though her application was approved back then, she couldn’t make the trip due to financial constraints.
This year’s event will see hosts South Africa take on Wales in their Group C opening game. The other countries competing in the tournament are Australia, Barbados, England, Fiji, Jamaica,
Malawi, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Wales and Zimbabwe.
