Reigning Zimbabwe Netball Association (ZNA) champions Railstars failed to travel to Zanzibar to participate in the Chama-Chama Revolution Netball Cup to be held this week, due to financial constraints.
The team was among clubs ZNA had invited to represent the country with funds permitting in the tournament that was expected to attract six countries from January 6-12.
Other teams expected to travel are last years runners-up Nehanda Nyakasikana, Zimbabwe Defence Forces and Tenax.
The selection criteria used had been the top four teams in the ZNA league.
Last month, Railstars secretary-general Khathazile Kulube told NewsDay Sport they were interested in representing the country in the competition, but this hit a brickwall as a result of financial constraints.
We were very eager to represent the country in the competition. But we could not because we could not get the sponsorship to travel to Zanzibar. We had already started preparing, but there was nothing more we could do, she said.
Railstars are at risk of losing sponsorship after National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) director (finance and administration) Patrick Bondai revealed last year during the Railstars awards ceremony when they retained the ZNA championship they might pull out of sponsoring sports. He said different sporting disciplines sponsored by NRZ were likely to be affected as the parastatal was going through challenges.
Football, basketball and darts are among the sports sponsored by NRZ.
