RAINBOW Amateur Netball League (RANL) will run a crash programme and squeeze its full league programme into two months.

The start of this year’s league was delayed due to a ban on sporting activities by the government as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19.

RANL’s schedule was also affected by its failure to get clearance from the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) on time with matches having been pencilled to start last weekend.

RANL secretary-general Moses Gukurume has said the league will run and complete before Christmas.

“We are looking forward to a very good start to this season, seeing that we are coming to the end of the year, and we would like to make good use of the time that is left. So these games should bring excitement and remuneration to our players so that they get to the end of the year with something in their pockets,” Gukurume said.

“We have received communication from the Zimbabwe Netball Association to the effect that our games have been cleared to start tomorrow, so that is exactly what we are doing.”

In terms of preparation for the games, Gukurume said there had been positive feedback so far from most participating teams.

“Our preparations for Saturday games are going on very well. We are informed from most, if not all our teams that their preparations are going on well. They are geared up for the start of the season,” Gukurume said.

The league hosted a dry run tournament at the beginning of this month so as to prepare teams for the season and also assessing the costs of running games.

In terms of the playing format, Gukurume said: “We are going to run this on a tournament basis where four teams will meet in Bulawayo, Kwekwe, Harare and three will meet in Mutare. We will do the same the following weeks so that it becomes rotational. Those teams that were playing at home will be travelling and we will continue to do that until we come to the end of this season.

“As for the registration, we are making headway, we are happy that sanity is now prevailing in our sport,” he added.