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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE Matabeleland North Volleyball Association has stepped up preparations for the Zimbabwe Volleyball Association (ZVA) national beach volleyball series to be held in Binga on November 13.

While other provinces have to settle for artificial setups for beach volleyball, Matabeleland North has the privilege of using a natural beach.

The Binga sand beach is located on the Zambezi River between the mountains, and Matabeleland North province is believed to be sitting on millions of dollars in untapped tourism opportunities.

The district is home to a diverse wealth of fishing, boating and cultural activities.  The beach is one of the most pristine and undeveloped potential tourism draw cards if proper work is done.

With the district already popular with tourists for its wildlife, boating and cultural activities, introduction of beach volleyball will also help make it the first sports tourism destination.

The beach is currently under development and Matabeleland North Volleyball Association chairperson Sifiso Buhlungu says they want to use their advantage of having Zimbabwe’s only natural sand beach to popularise beach volleyball and become a force in the game.

“We will be hosting the national beach volleyball series in Binga for the first time. We want to use this competition to bring this sport to the people. We are appealing to partners out there to come on board and help us make Binga the home of beach volleyball.

“We are looking at capitalising on this natural beach and are working to introduce beach volleyball in the province.

The Binga beach certainly should make our efforts easier,” said Buhlungu.

Binga Rural District Council and Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) co-manage the beach, which lies less than two kilometres down a steep slope from the Binga Aerodrome.

Beach volleyball is a variation of the traditional indoor version of the game and is played with only two players per side, compared to six in the field and indoor volleyball.

The court size is also different, as a beach volleyball court is 8x8m on each side, while an indoor court is 9x9m.

The beach ball itself is also softer and slightly larger than an indoor volleyball, but the rules are essentially the same, except that in beach volleyball a player can also cross under the net into an opponent’s side and hit the ball back under the net, provided their team still has enough contacts left to play the point.

They can only do this provided they don’t interfere with the opponents’ attempt at hitting the ball.

In beach volleyball, the block also always counts as the first contact of the ball and players are not required to rotate or change positions during play as they do in the indoor game. — @innocentskizoe