Chronicle EditorRicky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
FOREIGN-based Zimbabwe national team netball players are expected to report for the 2023 World Cup camp that will start next week in Harare.
The Gems qualified for the second consecutive World Cup that will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from July 28 to August 6.
Drawn in Pool A with 11-time world champions Australia, Tonga and Fiji, Zimbabwe will begin their preparations in earnest as they are supposed to submit a provisional list of 30 players by April.
Leticia Chipandu, the Zimbabwe Netball Association (Zina) president told Chronicle Sport that the technical team has been given leeway to select players from all tiers as they seek to have a competitive pool.
“As we head towards the start of the World Cup preparations, we’ve encouraged the national team technical team to court talent from all the leagues. We want them to get the best talent and be inclusive in terms of player identification and get players who deserve to be in the national team from all the leagues.
“At the end of February the team goes into camp. The technical team will decide whether they want all the shortlisted players in camp once or they’ll divide them into groups until they finalise the squad. We are supposed to submit a squad of 30 players for the World Cup by the end of April, which will be trimmed to 15 players who will travel to Cape Town.
“As preparations start, we expect Australia based pair of Joyce Matakayedza and Lorain Makunde as well as United Kingdom based captain Felistus Kwangwa in camp for proper coordination. They will not link up with the team at the World Cup, but are expected to go through the training camps,” Chipandu said.
According to the Zina president, the core of the squad will come from the team that participated at the World Cup qualifiers held in Pretoria last August as well the November Spar Diamond Challenge also staged in the South African capital city.
The Gems qualified for their second successive Netball World Cup after beating neighbours Zambia 59-41 in a third-place playoff match at the Africa Netball World Cup Qualifiers.
Zimbabwe, who finished in position eight at the 2019 World Cup held in Liverpool will be among the four African countries that will represent the continent at this year’s edition. Host nation South Africa, Malawi and Uganda are the other nations who have qualified for the 16-team World Cup finals. – @ZililoR.
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