I wasn’t invited for awards—Chester

This was an act of pure comedy. Be Forward Wanderers midfielder Yamikani Chester, who was named 2018 TNM Super League Player of the Season, did not get an invitation to attend the ceremony held in Blantyre on Saturday evening.

The United States-bound attacker yesterday said his absence from the awards ceremony dominated by champions Nyasa Big Bullets was not by design.

“As the most outstanding player, I would have loved to grace the occasion. Sadly, though, I did not get an invite.

“Nevertheless, I feel really proud to have achieved the feat and I thank the Almighty God for His blessings. It feels good to be named the best player and I also recognise the contribution that my team-mates made,” he said.

Team manager Stevie Madeira said the Nomads should take the blame for the “embarrassment”.

“When Chester phoned me in the morning yesterday [Saturday] to enquire about the invitation, I told him that I did not know who was keeping the cards.

“Later on, when I enquired from Sulom about the cards, I was told that they had already sent them through the secretariat and it was only at around 5pm when our vice-treasurer called me to offer me one and I assumed that Chester and, at least, the captain would get one each. But to my surprise, they were not there because they did not get the cards,” said Madeira who received Chester’s award as well as the Nomads’ runners-up prize.

However, one of the organisers of the event said some Wanderers fans used some cards allocated to the club to access entry to the awards.

“As to how they [fans] accessed the cards or the criteria used, I wouldn’t know,” said the organising committee member.

Sulom treasurer Tiya Somba-Banda yesterday said invitation cards for the awardees were sent through their respective clubs.

Coincidentally, last year Nomads’ midfielder Joseph Kamwendo, who was named Player of the Season, also missed the awards due to illness.

During the awards, Bullets won four of the individual awards with captain John Lanjesi being named Defender of the Season, Chiukepo Msowoya got the Golden Boot Award, Rabson Cheyenda was named the best goalkeeper while midfielder Mike Mkwate got the Most Improved Player Award.

Masters Security FC midfielder Francis Mkonda was named the best midfielder.

Chester got K300 000, Chiukepo received K250 000 while the rest got K100 000 each.

In team awards, the People’s Team went away with the Best Team Management Award and First-Round Winner while Masters Security were named the Most Improved Team and that their technical panel was the best. Fairplay Team Award went to TN Stars of Kasungu, Silver Strikers were awarded for having the most disciplined supporters.

The award for best set of referees went to Gift Chiko, Happiness Mbandambanda and Clemence Kanduku while Stevie Moloseni, was recognised as a fan who predicted most of the matches correctly.

For winning the league, Bullets were awarded K15 million while immediate past champions Wanderers received K7.5 million as runners-up. Silver and Masters got K4 million and K3.5 million for finishing third and fourth, respectively.