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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe senior netball team — the Gems — are set to resume their preparations for the Netball World Cup this weekend when they go into camp in Harare.
The 2023 Netball World Cup is slated for July 28 to August 6 in Cape Town, South Africa, with 16 countries, including Zimbabwe, competing.
The senior national team is expected to troop into camp on Sunday February 26 at Girls High School.
The Zimbabwe Netball Association president, Letitia Chipandu, said they have made progress in their plans related to the team’s preparations.
“We are quite at an advanced stage with regard to planning for the Gems to get into camp, 26 February. The Gems are getting into camp to train.
“We will get advice from the technical team to say how many players they are bringing in because we have identified 30 players who we want to train and then trim to 20 and then trim to the final 15.
“We are taking the old players as well as the newly identified players, that’s what we had a pre-season tournament for. We had inter-provincial Division One teams to try and identify more players to include in the national team and the technical team was there identifying them,” said Chipandu.
The national team coaches also had a chance to watch some of the players in action over the weekend when they took part in the Premier Netball League pre-season tournament with their respective club. The ZINA president pointed out that for the upcoming camp, they are likely to have local-based players only.
“And for this first camp we might not bring in the foreign-based players but for the next camp before we go to Malawi for the friendly matches, they should be there. “They need to play at least one or two friendly games with the rest of the team so that we see how they perform or coordinate with everyone else,” said Chipandu. Zimbabwe will be making their second successive appearance at the global show-piece and are aware of the work they need to put in to be in a position to compete with the world’s best.
Chipandu said they have engaged South Africa, Malawi and Uganda for friendly matches as part of their preparations.
“We have written to them (and) they have also shown interest, Malawi, Uganda and South Africa. But they have not given us specific dates for the friendly matches.
“So we are still working on that to see when we can go. But those are the countries we would want to go to for the friendly matches. We are yet to finalise in terms of the dates but the agreement is there,” Chipandu said.
The national association is also engaging various corporates and stakeholders for sponsorship that will cater for the team’s preparations and participation at the Netball World Cup.
“There are lots of negotiations that are going on with prospective sponsors . . . It’s work in progress.
“(The budget for) preparations and the World Cup, (it’s) slightly above US$200 000,” Chipandu said.
Gems coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki said they are finalising the squad and are hoping to bring in 30 players.
“For this camp, we are expecting 30 players. We are still working on the list.
“I think this is our starting point of our preparations. This time we want to give every player enough time to prove themselves,” said Mutsauki.
Mutsauki has emphasised the importance of friendly matches since their qualification for the Netball World Cup. He has pointed out that playing some of the top teams in the world will be ideal for their build-up. Zimbabwe secured their place at the Cape Town tournament last August during the qualifiers in South Africa. They are in Pool A together with former champions Australia, Tonga and Fiji.
After their qualification, the Gems competed at the Spar Diamond Challenge in South Africa in November where they played Scotland, South Africa’s senior team and the SA President’s XII.
So far it is the only competition they have had towards getting ready for the 2023 Netball World Cup.
Online Reporter