Cable & Wireless Seychelles donates R100,000 towards rugby development in Seychelles |07 June 2022

Mr Fonseka and Mr D’Offay hold a replica of the cheque worth R100,000 (Photo: Patrick Joubert)

Cable & Wireless Seychelleshas donated a cheque worth R100,000 to the Seychelles Rugby Association for the development of rugby in the country, especially among the youths.

It was the chief executive of Cable & Wireless Seychelles (CWS), Georges D’Offay, who presented the cheque to the Seychelles Rugby Association (SRA) chairman Luke Fonseka, in a small ceremony yesterday morning at the Exiles Club.

Present were staff of Cable & Wireless Seychelles and members of the SRA. The presentation followed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) of renewed partnership to formalise and encourage the development of the sport and signed by Mr D’Offay and Mr Fonseka.

Through the MoU, the SRA will provide quality educational support to promote rugby among young people and will name its national rugby league ‘Cable & Wireless Island Nations Cup’. For matches, players will have to wear t-shirts and shorts printed with the Cable & Wireless Seychelles logos and the SRA will have to ensure the company’s visibility around the games’ venues.

Mr Fonseka said the donation will help inspire young people to join the sport and become good representatives of the game and at the same time strengthen the foundation that will allow future success for the Seychelles national team against teams in the region.

“So we’re really happy with this partnership, we’re really excited. We will be very transparent and we will deliver results,” said Mr Fonseka who thanked Mr D’Offay for the donation.

On his part, Mr D’Offay said that it was a privilege for CWS to be associated with rugby, taking into account the number of young people, especially girls, practising the sport. He added that while the association seeks to popularise the sport, the youngsters are developed and are kept away from anti-social activities present in the country.

“We will always be here to help you and I hope we will continue on the good path that we have taken,” Mr D’Offay said.

Currently there are 60 players ‒ Seychellois and foreigners working in the country ‒ forming the four teams in the national league. The four teams are the Seychelles team made up of Seychellois, the Seychelles Seyboks Madagascar made up of Malagasy players, the Seychelles Seyboks South Africa made up of South African players and the International Barbarians made up of a mix of other foreigners in the country.

The association is seeking to increase the number of teams to six while it trains 90 children ‒ 40 under 9-year-olds and 50 over 12-year-olds.

The sponsorship for the national league and for the development of the sport will continue until the end of 2023 and will see a second donation of R100,000 during that year (2023) by the telecommunication service provider.

The Cable & Wireless Island Nations Cup kicks off on Saturday at 3pm at the Mont Fleuri playing field.

Patrick Joubert