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Nhlanhla Dube

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS will take a development side to face Dynamos in today’s curtain-raiser to the exhibition match between World Class Legends and their Zimbabwean counterparts at the National Sports Stadium.

Bosso and Dynamos were invited by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) to be part of the exhibition match, which is part of the authority’s drive to market the country as a tourist and investment destination of choice, in line with the government’s “Zimbabwe is open for business” campaign.

Nhlanhla Dube, the Highlanders’ chief executive officer, said the invitational competition came at the right time when the Premiership is on a mid-season break and presents fringe players an opportunity to get game time.

“This game has everything to do with Highlanders’ strategic approach to development. What happens is that we have a side that plays invitational games made up of first team players, who fall under the juniors’ category, and these are in the Division One side Bosso-90 and our Under-18s. Players earmarked for promotion from Bosso 90 as well as the juniors are going to compose the squad travelling for the friendly match against Dynamos,” said Dube.

“This is a friendly game and an opportunity for players to develop all aspects of the game to travel with the team and play in different venues.”

ZTA chose the country’s biggest teams in order to draw numbers to the giant stadium where supporters will also enjoy free entrance.

The match will give coach Madinda Ndlovu an opportunity to look at fringe first team players such as goalkeeper Nedrick Madeya, defenders Ashford Faira, Andrew Mbeba and Vincent Moyo, midfielders Owen Gombami, Munyaradzi Chitambwe and Talent Machimbirike as well as strikers Daniel Msendami, Edmore Moyo and Timothy Zivave.

Moyo, Mbeba and Chitambwe have made cameo appearances in the league.

Dynamos’ coach Lloyd Mutasa told our Harare Bureau that he will use the opportunity to have a further look at his team.

“It’s an element of coming together as a family so that we establish that strong bond again and it’s always good playing against a team such as Highlanders. This match will also give us the opportunity to look closely at some of the players we have, whether we have the right kind of personnel or not. The window is opening soon, we will need to sit down as a team to see areas that need beefing up,” said Mutasa.

Organisers yesterday said they had set aside a “good package” for the team that wins the curtain-raisers match expected to kick-off at 1pm.

A team of former football stars, who include Fernando Morientes, Gianluca Zambrotta, Francesco Coco, Patrick Kluivert, Julio Baptista and Edmilson is in the country and also toured some of the country’s resorts such as Victoria Falls.

The event is expected to be broadcast by Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid televisions as well as their social media platforms.

@ZililoR