Gems to finalise team selection

Ellina Mhlanga-Senior Sports Reporter

WITH the Netball World Cup qualifiers getting closer, Zimbabwe senior national netball team assistant coach Tatenda Shinya says they are now in the final phase of their team selection.

The Gems squad have been in camp at Girls High School since early this month for the qualifying event scheduled for next month in Pretoria, South Africa. 

The current camp is expected to run until Sunday and Shinya said they had made good progress. 

“I think this week we just want to finalise on our team selection and look at the combinations that are working, that are coming up well. And also to do the final fitness test for the players. We did it once so we are going to do it again. 

“And we want to focus mainly on our speed now and accuracy when we reach the goal circle, so that we can be sure on how we can score and on which rate, that’s what we want to focus on. 

“The progress is very positive and everyone is showing good attitude. We are also positive that we are going to produce better results because of what we are seeing when we play the boys teams. It shows we are going somewhere, we have a good opportunity of qualifying,” said Shinya. 

Initially, the technical team announced an 18-member squad but as they made adjustments, at some point, they had 21 players before dropping four players. 

They are now working with a 17-member squad and they are set to drop a few more players as they finalise the final team. 

They brought in Patricia Mauladi last week, in a move expected to broaden their options on the mid-court. 

“We believe if she can catch up, if she can manage to get the endurance that we want, she can be of great help to us. But we are not saying she is automatically in. We had to give her a chance also, because we believe she can deliver if she wants to. 

“So we are working extra hard with her, doing some extra training so that she can catch up with the others. But she is positive and she is also pushing herself further, so we are sure if she continues like that maybe she will make it. 

“She has got good height, she has got the experience though she is still lacking one or two things because the other girls have been training together in terms of combinations. 

“But she is not a bad player. You can see, netball is still in the head, (we) just need to bring back that physical part only but she is good,” said Shinya. Zimbabwe are chasing a second successive appearance at the Netball World Cup to be hosted by South Africa in 2023. 

There are two remaining slots for the African countries after South Africa and Uganda qualified by virtue of hosting and rankings.