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Tadious Manyepo-Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe senior national netball team, the Gems, have been afforded a perfect platform to assess their arsenal ahead of the Netball World Cup in South Africa next year.
The Ropafadzo Mutsauki-coached girls have been invited for the annual Diamond Challenge Cup by Netball South Africa to take place in Durban next month.
Games are scheduled to run from November 19-26.
The high-profile invitational tournament is making a return after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Zimbabwe last participated at the meet in 2018 and emerged third behind winners South Africa and Zambia. This year’s event is expected to be bigger and better with Netball South Africa inviting some top teams including Scotland and Malawi. Zimbabwe Netball Association president, Leticia Chipandu, confirmed yesterday that the Gems will be part of the jamboree having already received sponsorship from UK-based Zimbabwean-owned consultancy, Ree Sports.
The veteran netball administrator said the Gems, whose provisional squad is expected to be named today, will start camp in Harare in the next two weeks.
“As the Zimbabwe Netball Association, we are very excited with the invitation extended to us by our colleagues to participate at the Diamond Challenge next month.
“We are grateful, we have already secured sponsorship from Ree Sports whose director is a Zimbabwean, Godfrey Mugadza-Kanengoni, who has since bought the air tickets and paid for our accommodation in South Africa.
“They are also working on getting us the uniforms and other stuff. So we can say the trip is on as everything is in place right now,” said Chipandu. “This is a platform for the technical team to assess some of the junior players they are calling into camp right now.
“They will also be gauging where they stand as a team right now and see which areas they need to consolidate and improve in view of the upcoming World Cup next year.”
Chipandu said the Diamond Challenge Cup is an important competition which needs to be taken seriously.
“This is an annual invitational tournament and we are happy to be part of it. This tournament is included when world rankings are conducted and we have to make sure we perform well to enhance our chances of improving our world rankings.
“We need to further strengthen our team and this the platform. I am sure the technical team would like to throw some new faces or juniors so they have a huge pool to pick players from for future assignments, including the World Cup.”
Online Reporter