CAPE TOWN – With just a few days before the Netball World Cup starts in Cape Town, this week Netball South Africa has concluded its trophy tour across the country.
On Wednesday the tour made its stop at the British Consulate in Cape Town.
The event demonstrated the UK’s commitment to raising the profile of women’s sports and ensuring women are fairly represented at all levels across the sector, as well as showing the diversity of netball between the UK and South Africa.
The Consul General Colin Leeman also used the event to thank the City of Cape Town and Netball South Africa for their vision and organisational skills in delivering a great tournament.
The @NetballWorldCup trophy tour underway in Cape Town, this time makes the stop at the British High Commissioner's Residence in Bishopscourt. #TrophyTour #NWC2023 pic.twitter.com/daSNO8Y9IX
— Ayanda Frances Felem (@AyandaFelemZA) July 12, 2023
“Sports unites the UK and South Africa in so many areas across so many many different sports. And for netball we have three of our teams that are coming here, England, Scotland and Wales,” said Leeman.
“We cannot wait to witness this and appreciate the incredible job today and other days that Netball South Africa, the City of Cape Town and LOC are doing.
“We as the UK have no doubt that Cape Town will make this a success, we’ve seen it in other sports and events they’ve hosted before. And we’ve seen what the country can do, from the 2010 FIFA World Cup making it a success. We really cannot wait to witness a spectacular event once again.”
The event will be hosted at Cape Town International Convention Centre starting on the 28 July-6 August.
Sixteen teams will be battling it out across the ten days, in the hope they will be crowned champions in netball’s most prestigious event.
“It was very important for South Africa to experience this trophy and having this tour made us realize that netball is supported across the nation,” said NSA President Cecilia Molokwane.
“We needed to make people aware that there’s a world cup that is happening in our country and remember netball is not like rugby, cricket and soccer. So we needed to speak to people and also make people understand that netball is the second largest federation after football.”
