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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
AS preparations for the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023 gather momentum, Gems coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki has said they are expecting the foreign-based players to join the rest of the squad next week.
The Nedbank-sponsored side is stepping up the preparations to the global show-piece due to take place from July 28 to August 6 in Cape Town, South Africa. They have been in camp for the past two weeks.
The camp is running until their departure on July 20.
Zimbabwe will be competing at the Netball World Cup for the second time on the trot and are hoping to surpass their performance in 2019 when they were placed eighth in Liverpool, England.
Despite the limited resources, the Gems have maintained a positive attitude and Mutsauki is now looking forward to the arrival of the foreign-based players that include captain Felisitus Kwangwa who plays in England, Australia-based shooter Joice Takaidza and Nalani Makunde.
“I am expecting them to join the rest of the team in the first week of July. I think if they can all come in the first week of July it will help them to quickly gel with others because we will have a bit of time in camp together.
“So if we can have two weeks together, it will really help in terms of our preparations,” said Mutsauki.
They have been engaging the men’s select side for some practice matches and had two matches over the weekend at Girls High School.
“It’s now our third week in camp and right now I am happy with the performance of the team. The team is showing some encouraging progress and that makes us happy as the technical department because so far the team was able to play with the men’s side during the weekend and they played well.
“I am not worried about winning, what is important to me is their performance and team work.
“We are expecting the team to work hard. Whether we win or lose, we just want to see if they are able to implement what we are doing in training, achieve our goals and what we would have planned . . . They did well winning the matches.
“But still we have a lot of work to do looking at the team defence. We will continue working on team defence because it’s critical if we want to win games.
“But right now I am happy because the signs are there, there is an improvement. They are able to win the ball in the middle of the court, and that is what we want,” said Mutsauki.
Having been to the World Cup before as an assistant coach in 2019, Mutsauki knows what to expect and the task lying ahead.
Yesterday, the Gems attended the Chevrons’ match against USA at Harare Sports Club.
“Today (yesterday) we went to support the cricket team. It’s very important because we also learn one or two lessons from supporting another national team. We are a family and they also support us,” Mutsauki said.
Nedbank injected a US$50 000 sponsorship package towards kits and travelling expenses for the team.
The Zimbabwe Netball Association are still hoping for more sponsors to come on board and support the Gems in their World Cup campaign. Zimbabwe were drawn in Pool A together with Australia, Fiji and Tonga. Pool B is made up of England, Malawi, Scotland and Barbados while Jamaica, South Africa, Wales and Sri Lanka make up Pool C.
Pool D consists of New Zealand, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago, and Singapore.
This is the first time the Netball World Cup is taking place on the African continent.
Online Reporter