By Trevor Makonyonga
Prince Edward School, the traditional hosts of the Dairibord Rugby Festival, are set to minimise teams which will participate in this year’s edition the rugby extravaganza after the COVID 19 pandemic has been dealt with.
The school is hoping to further cut the numbers of participants from the eighty which were scheduled for this year to as 20 or even less.
This was confirmed by festival director, Tawanda Jimu who said that they would go ahead and host the festival once schools reopen.
“At the moment we stand guide by the Ministry of Health on when we can host the tournament. Speculation is that schools will open in June. So once we are cleared and schools reopen that means the league will be derailed but we will look at hosting the festival in August or September. We are organizing something in the background but if we are going to host the festival, the August event will not be as the one in April. We will have to cut the number of schools to forty or maybe twenty.”
Jimu also revealed to Bustop TV that they had finally signed a contract with Dairibord and that the Derby Day would not have affected their schedule. There was speculation around the contract issue with suggestions that Econet might have been the main sponsor of the festival.
“We signed the contract with Dairibord and it will run for the next three years. As for the Derby Day, it wouldn’t have affected us.”
Earlier on Dairobord had announced the postponement of the festival.
The statement read, “In line with the recent announcement by His Excellency President E.D. Mnangagwa and, on the backdrop of the recent pronouncement by the World Health Organisation declaring the COVID 19 a pandemic, Dairibord Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd and Prince Edward School have decided to defer the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival 2020 edition which was due to take place from April 27- 2 May 2020 to a later date to be advised.
“The Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival has become a major annual event on the local schools sporting calendar and has continued to attract international teams, referees and scouts. The interest among local rugby fans has also been growing in leaps and bounds. Rugby, being a high contact sport and in light of the coronavirus, Prince Edward School (the Festival Organiser and Host), Dairibord (the Festival Title Sponsor), have seen it only fit and responsible to defer the Seventh Edition of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival as a health risk-mitigating measure for the participating teams, officials and fans.
“The health and safety of all the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival participants are of utmost importance to us, hence the decision to defer to a future date to be advised in line with the developments regarding the COVID 19 pandemic.”
