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Ellina Mhlanga
Sports Reporter
AFTER trimming his squad over the weekend, the Zimbabwe men’s Under-21 field hockey side’s coach Fidelis Majuba says they can now move a gear up in their build-up to the Junior World Cup qualifiers in March.
The Under-21 men’s side have been training in groups with some of the players meeting in Chiredzi while others were in Bulawayo and some in Harare.
But over the weekend Majuba had the opportunity to meet and train with the squad in one place at St John’s College in Harare.
The technical team also trimmed the squad of over 40 players to 24 – 18 travelling players and six non-travelling reserves.
They have since submitted the squad to the Hockey Association of Zimbabwe and the 24-member squad is expected to be officially announced before the end of this week together with the women’s side that was also trimmed over the weekend.
“Now we are actually going into a serious training schedule in December and January where we will be training almost on a weekly basis. We are now in preparations for our departure to Ghana.
“We expect the announcement of the final 24 in the next two or three days. We have already sent it to the Hockey Association of Zimbabwe, so we expect that the teams must be announced by the end of this week.
“We are very optimistic, I feel that the players have really worked hard. We think we have got a very strong base. If we can get the finances for the right players to travel, we will do well,” said Majuba.
Majuba, however, said they need all the support they can get to be able to field a strong team and for the trip to be a success.
The qualifiers will take place in Accra, Ghana, in March with participants vying for the only slot left after South Africa, who are going to host the Junior World Cup later in 2021, got the other slot.
The national association has put in place a committee to raise funds for the national teams, including the senior sides that have the Central-South Africa tournament to take place in February in Harare.
“There is a bit of a snag because obviously our costs are quite high and we are desperately looking for sponsorship.
“Just to mention one of our biggest cost, is the pre-test and the post-test of Covid-19, which is costing US$150 per person one way, so it will be US$300 (for pre-test and post-test) that is costing us over US$7 000 just to do the testing of Covid-19. So that is threatening our trip being successful at the moment.
“So we are facing a few challenges at the moment but for me at the moment that’s the biggest challenge because someone has to pay for that, it’s huge to ask parents to pay US$300.
“But our plans are going ahead and we will be in Harare again on the 9th and the 10th of January. We will be training in Bulawayo for the next two camps,” Majuba said.
He expressed concern over the limited time players have on the astro turf because of limited facilities in the country and the high costs involved to access private facilities.
Women’s side coach Tendayi Maredza said after cutting their team to 34 from the initial 42, they are looking at announcing the final 18 in the second week of January.
“So, basically now after trimming the squad we are still going to be working on team tactics, shape and structure. What we have done is we have included some youngsters for development for next year… We want them to work with the seniors and learn.
“This December we have got quite a couple of sessions before we can decide on the final 18. And then after the final 18 we can then work on other advanced things in terms of our preparations for the actual tournament,” said Maredza.
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