JOHANNESBURG - Netball South Africa (NSA) announced two additional teams will participate in the 2020 Telkom Netball League (TNL) at the relaunch of the netball season on Monday afternoon.
The Tornadoes from the Western Cape and the Kingdom Queens from KwaZulu-Natal were added to the teams' roster and will compete against the other 10 franchises, including defending and three-time champions the Gauteng Jaguars.
The 12 sides will compete for top honours in the Free State from the middle of October.
“As we have been talking over the years that we want to see the sport grow, this is one way of doing that,” said the NSA President Cecilia Molokwane. “The decision to have two more teams comes as no surprise because if you look at the Western Cape, they have appeared at almost every single final of the tournament, KZN is our biggest province and we therefore decided to make sure that we start there.”
Molokwane also unveiled a three year sponsorship extension of their headline sponsor Telkom.
“We are grateful for partners like Telkom who believe in our vision of turning the sport professional," said Molokwane. "Their partnership with us is the steppingstone we need in ensuring that we work towards bringing the vision to life."
WOW! Consider us mind blown 🤯. These ladies will definitely be representing! Aren't these kits 🔥![CDATA[]]>🔥![CDATA[]]>🔥#TNLisBack #TelkomNL pic.twitter.com/QAnpqZI0IM
— @TelkomZA (@TelkomZA) September 21, 2020
The federation announced that the TNL will take place at the Mangaung Indoor Sports Complex in Bloemfontein between October 14-27. Initially, the tournament was supposed to have taken place in May over a period of six weeks in three provinces but had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
All 12 participating teams are expected to enter the bio-bubble on October 8 to begin their preparation and will follow strict health protocols as they prepare for their first matches a week later. Spectators will not be allowed at the arena during the TNL.
The 12 Telkom Netball League teams are
Eastern Cape: Aloes
Free State: Crinums
Gauteng: Golden Fireballs, Jaguars (defending champions)
KwaZulu-Natal: Kingdown Queens, Kingdom Stars
Limpopo: Baobabs
Mpumalanga: Sunbirds
Northern Cape: Diamonds
North West Province: Flames
Western Cape: Southern Stings, Tornadoes.
Xilombe Mathye