Flashback: The six edition of the SSA Masters tournament promises to be an action-packed event of the golden oldies.
Moyahabo Mabeba
Softball stars of yesteryears will converge in the Free State capital of Bloemfontein for the sixth installment of South African Softball Masters Tournament this week to celebrate the game’s heritage.
The 2023 edition of the Masters games pitches off on September 21 after an opening ceremony with the grand finale scheduled for the 24th at the Clive Solomon stadium.
Played under the theme, My Culture My Heritage My Pride, the annual tourney features a total number of 35 teams coming from South Africa, Botswana and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho.
The Masters event is the second largest spectacle rivalling the National Provincial Championships with an estimate of 130 games over four days.
Staged during the heritage month, the oldies games reinvigorate softball’s heritage that is deeply entrenched in the SADC region.
A perfect reunion for the cream of the crop of the olden days, this event has all the hallmarks of a swashbuckling sporting charisma.
Botswana-based Kalahari Diamond Kings will return to South Africa with bragging rights after winning the 2022 championships in the men’s competitive division in Polokwane while Jumpers won the recreational category.
Western Province’s Glenthorn, who conquered the women’s, division, will not travel to Bloem to defend their crown.
Despite their conspicuous absence, this tournament is experiencing an upward trajectory as new teams come to the battlefield.
Derrick Mahapa, chairman of Softball South Africa’s Masters Division reckons that the host nation is on an encouraging path to increase the number of participating women’s teams, especially from South Africa.
Mahapa said “Our vision is to have more teams from SADC and also increase in women teams from RSA. Women in sport play an important role as we want to cultivate a culture and heritage of positive role models in softball and in sport in general. Masters softball is experiencing growth and with growth comes challenges of running the biggest tournament in Africa. We took a decision from Polokwane Masters tournament to increase number of tournament days due to an increase in team participation. “We previously introduced streams to reduce the burden on fixtures versus the number of days. However that was not enough hence we now have a combination of increase on tournament days and streams.”
He went on to say “We are happy with the growth, now our biggest challenge is attracting sponsors to enable us to host a safe and compliant event. We need sponsors to sustain the growth and maintain costs per participant as low as possible. It is tough but we are confident some sponsors will be joining us soon.”
Moyahabo Mabeba is Limpopo Softball Association’s Head of Marketing and Publicity.