Telkom Netball League 2020 to resume

The local netball season is set to finally start after Netball South Africa launched and officially announced that the 2020 edition of the Telkom Netball League (TNL) will be held at the Mangaung Indoor Sports Complex in Bloemfontein between 14 and 27 October 2020.

The tournament was scheduled for a May 2020 start, however due to the Covid-19 pandemic that brought the world to a standstill, it was postponed until recently.

The 2019 sponsor, Telkom also announced that they have extended their relationship with Netball SA by a further three years and will remain the headline sponsor of this tournament until 2022.

“We are grateful for partners like Telkom who believe in our vision of turning the sport professional. Their partnership with us is the stepping stone we need to ensure that we work towards bringing this vision to life. We hope that this relationship will continue to yield the desired results and grow from strength to strength,” said Netball SA President, Cecilia Molokwane.

Initially the tournament would have been played over a six-week period across three provinces; however, due to lockdown and travel restrictions, the event will now be hosted in one location and played across two weeks.

All teams will be placed in a Biologically Safe Environment (BSE) to try and minimise the spread of the virus.

According to Netball SA, for the very first time their technical sponsor, Puma, will dress the teams participating in the Telkom Netball League, as well as the umpires, technical officials and ball girls.

The federation further announced that two new teams will be participating at this year’s TNL competition. They are the Tornadoes from the Western Cape, and the Kingdom Queens from KZN.

“We have been talking over the years that we want to see the sport grow, and this is one way of doing that. The decision to have two more teams comes as no surprise because if you look at the Western Cape, they have appeared in almost every single final of the tournament, and KZN is our biggest province. We therefore decided to make sure that we start there,” concluded Molokwane.

Under the guidance of head coach Dr Elsje Jordaan, the U/21 national team will be playing some exhibition matches at this year’s tournament.

The team will use this tournament to get some game time after their Africa qualifiers for the 2021 Netball World Youth Cup in Fiji got cancelled.

The 12 participating teams will enter the bio bubble on 8 October and will undergo training sessions whilst observing very strict health protocols before they play their first game.

As with many other sporting codes globally, spectators will not be allowed at the arena during this period.