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THE Zimbabwe baseball team will represent the country at the March 2015 All-Africa Games set for Congo-Brazzaville ending an 11 year hiatus. Baseball has been slowly picking up in recent years after it was affected by the 2007/8 financial problems. The revival is spearheaded by the Zimbabwe Baseball Association new board which was put into office in November last year by the Sport and Recreation Commission following the firing of the previous executive on allegations of financial impropriety.
ZBA vice-president Innocent Mwoyosvi said the national team that will represent the country at the All-Africa Games would be the same team that would compete at the South African Baseball Union championships in Gauteng, South Africa next April.
A 21-member team was selected and the players who make the select side were chosen after they impressed at the ZBA inter-provincial Dream Cup tournament held last year.
“The Dream Cup campaign saw the selection of the national team being put in place ahead of competitions in which we will feature in this year and we are impressed because 40percent of the players were high school individuals, which is part of our junior development programme,” said Mwoyosvi.
He said the selected players were chosen from five provinces namely Harare, Bulawayo, Mashonaland West, Manicaland and the Midlands.
“Masvingo was the only province not represented at the campaign and hence there are no players from the province that were selected and they did not furnish the association with details on why they did not participate,” he said.
Mwoyosvi said he was hopeful that the newly-selected team would bring either a silver or gold medal from the All-Africa Games.
“The team looks promising as they are young and vibrant. However, we are perfecting on their batting, pitching and fielding skills but other than that we are hopeful that the team will get medals as they are strong and competitive enough to face any team,” he said.
Zimbabwe team:
John Ndlovu, Batsirai Murazvu, Kelvin Kawadza, Tinashe Kwangware, Tafadzwa Filipo, Jaison Mungoni, Joram Zifuinzi, Luxton Mawaya, Vincent Chaima, Sumani Phiri, William Sithole, Yasser Simango, Hlaniphani Ngulube God knows Kachidza, Mhlanguli Muguti, Brian Mwanza, Anesuishe Nago, Collen Gando, Learnmore Takaedza, Alfred Sithole, and Raymond Mafuyanzara with Innocent Mwoyosvi leading the technical team.
Online Reporter