The big boys of pay-per-view television were in town on Wednesday.They came, saw and went. They will return on November 27.
That was the story of Supersport International’s historic live broadcast of the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) match between Dynamos and Motor Action at Rufaro on Wednesday.
The live beaming of the match will be followed by the screening of the Mbada Diamonds Cup final between the same teams on November 27 at either the National Sports Stadium or Rufaro.
For a midweek fixture, the crowd was excellent, which is exactly what PSL chairman Twine Phiri had hoped. He is already looking ahead to November 27.
“I want to pay tribute to the fans. They came in their numbers and I want them to keep up the good attendances in future games.
“The atmosphere was good for football and there was no violence clearly showing us that football is a family sport.
“Everything went according to plan and I must point out the fact that the fans were a key factor in all this. Supersport is happy with what they saw.
“The Mbada Diamonds Cup final will be played on a Sunday and we expect even a larger crowd judging by the large crowd that watched yesterday’s (Wednesday) on a working day,” Phiri said.
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They came in all shape and sizes, all colours, but predominantly in blue and white.
The VIP was seething with all the names you could get in the PSL football — Phiri, his chief executive Kenny Ndebele, Gunners director Cuthbert Chitima, Motor Action’s Eric and Liz Rosen and Dynamos chairman Kenny Mubaiwa and his secretary Nyika Chifamba.
Pafius Masunda, the Zifa honorary member was also there to witness the historic event along with former PSL fixtures secretary Godfrey Japajapa and various sports personalities ranging from Admire Taderera and Warriors coach Norman Mapeza to Kenny Makambira.
BBC Sport’s Steve Vickers was the commentator for the big match with former Caps United, Warriors and Mamelodi Sundowns striker Alois Bunjira acting as match analyst.
And there he was: Ben Mahaka, the former Studio 263 actor anchoring for SuperSport. The Motor Action brass, in red, gold and black band did their thing for 90 minutes even though Dynamos, led by “Chuchu” had performed the “Butter Thing” twice during the game.
And all that made it a wonderful day for everybody who attended. Those that made a quick getaway from their offices at lunch, those mysteriously off sick, the vendors, “hunters”, small houses, prison guards, you name them.
Who is Supersport? SuperSport is a South African group of television channels owned by Naspers and carried on DStv satellite platform. It is the leading sports provider in South Africa and Africa.
It also provides sports coverage in many other African countries.
SuperSport has by far the largest variety of sports on a single sports broadcaster. This includes most of the major sporting events and leagues of rugby, cricket, football, golf, tennis, motorsport, cycling, boxing, wrestling and athletics.
It is the world’s biggest broadcaster of live rugby and cricket and also the world’s biggest English Premier League broadcaster, beaming every match live — and in HD — and boasting a 24-hour HD channel dedicated to only this tournament. Apart from its satellite channels, there are also SuperSport feeds on MNet, CSN and MNet HD.
In August 2011, SuperSport renewed its contract with the PSL for another five years. Since 2011, SuperSport’s association with MNet began to crumble, when MNet split its terrestrial feed from its DStv channel.
DStv viewers can no longer watch sports events on MNet, although terrestrial subscribers still get feeds on the main channel, as well as the Community Services Network.
