daniel chigunwe
Veronica Gwaze
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE Ministry of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture is investigating an identity issue involving Zimbabwe’s Under-20 netball team at the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Games in Namibia.
Allegations being levelled against the Zimbabwe Netball Association suggest that an unusually extra 13th player, Anna Tenisi, was included in the side that is part of Team Zimbabwe at the regional youth sport festival.
This is despite the fact that Tenisi is not on the official list, amid genuine concerns that she could be using Nomselo Ncube’s identity.
Ncube, a Sobukazi learner, was reportedly dropped from the team upon the Zimbabwe contingent’s arrival in Namibia to accommodate Tenisi.
Now Tenisi’s inclusion has sparked questions about fairness and integrity in the game.
The team’s coach claims Ncube wasn’t supposed to travel with the team but was brought along for encouragement purposes.
Resultantly, the Ministry of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture is now looking into the matter, with the permanent secretary Nicholas Moyo, yesterday emphasising the importance of integrity in sports.
According to the official list from the Ministry of Sport, the Under-20 Netball team had 12 players who were supposed to travel to Namibia.
Reports and photographs have, however, come out suggesting that they travelled with a 13th player whose name is not on the official list.
According to the Games competition rules, a team should have 12 players.
Questions have also been raised as to why Tenisi is in the Young Gems side while Ncube has now been made to attend some workshops instead.
Ncube’s parents confirmed that their daughter has been sidelined from the Young Gems.
“She called us crying before the games had started, she said she had been told that she will not be participating in the games,” said Ncube’s parents.
“They should have dropped her when they were still in Zimbabwe, now she is dejected there because she cannot be with her teammates except in the evenings when they retire to bed.”
With Ncube’s name still appearing on the team sheet, there is a possibility that Tenisi is using her identity.
And this has created a lot of confusion within the netball community.
Moyo said they are taking the allegations seriously and have since launched their probe.
“We were not aware of the issue but now that it has been raised, we are urgently looking into it.
“Our aim is to uphold integrity in the game and sport in general, so we have to find out what exactly is happening.
“As a team, we want to have the best team on the field, it is about competition not names but whatever happens should be done fairly and openly.”
If Tenisi is found to be using Ncube’s identity, it could lead to serious consequences, not only for the player but also for the team. Zimpapers Sport Hub understands that ordinarily, vetting of players is done ahead of the tournament.
Here, players and officials’ identity documents and profiles are compiled for the authorities to do verifications.
In this regard, the netball authorities may have opted to have Tenisi on the team after the documents had already gone for vetting.
“Integrity is crucial, dishonesty and negative publicity harm the reputation of teams and the country as well so we have zero tolerance on that,” added Moyo.
However, an AUSC Region 5 game netball official said the changes on the team are above board.
According to the official, Ncube was in fact not supposed to travel with the team after being dropped at the last minute.
“We felt that leaving the player behind would discourage her so we just brought her here for encouragement purposes,” said the official.
As the probe into the matter continues, netball stakeholders have called for fairness in teams’ selections.
“The Ministry should investigate and go beyond just speaking to those involved,” said a local netball administrator.
“Based on history and how issues are concealed in this sport code they need to make sure they handle the situation properly if they are to get answers.
“We were also surprised to see the 13th player in photos so it made us keen to see who would be dropped and we were shocked that Ncube’s name continued to appear while she didn’t appear on the court.
Online Reporter