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Ellina Mhlanga–Senior Sports Reporter
FOLLOWING a winless campaign by the Under-20 side at the International Handball Federation Trophy continental phase last week in Brazzaville, Congo, the national association has admitted they need to address some basics to improve the quality of the game.
The junior side earned the ticket to take part in the continental event when they were crowned champions at the regional tournament last year.
However, competing at the IHF Trophy continental phase was a different ball game altogether with the team failing to win a single match against eventual winners Guinea, Nigeria, Rwanda, Madagascar and the host Congo.
The winners advance to the World Junior Championships to be held later in the year.
Speaking after their last match at the tournament last Friday, Zimbabwe’s Under-20 coach Cephas Mushati highlighted a number of areas that need improvement, including the establishment of a strong base in club handball.
“Firstly, as a nation we need to make sure our players are able to access good facilities like grounds at grassroots level. We need to work on a lot of basic handball like the pace of the game, ball execution using handball glue exposure to friendly matches with these teams.
“We need to make sure players are exposed to basic handball workouts and try to engage with these French speaking nations in friendly matches.
“We need to make sure we create a strong base in club handball so that our selection is made up of players playing professional handball.”
Currently there is no national league running in this country, which is a setback in terms of creating a competitive environment as clubs are limited to their provinces and regions.
The Zimbabwe Handball Federation secretary-general, Edson Chirowodza, conceded that they are lagging behind.
“Our club system is active at regional level though as ZHF we need to secure sponsorship for the league to be competitive and commence (the) national league which is part of our plans.
“And this is work in progress as currently the economic situation hinders our clubs to be travelling hence we have an option to start by a tournament based league format,” said Chirowodza.
Apart from having to contend with lack of a competitive environment locally, the team which was last active at the regional tournament last October, was also limited in preparing for the tournament.
“It was not ideal as we could only operate with available resources hence the need to review our performance wholesomely introspecting as a nation how far are we supporting national teams’ preparations for major competitions.
“You would be surprised that discussing with other countries their success hinges on a lot of effort and support from their governments. Availability and accessibility of facilities also matters. Given all this we would have been better placed.
“Zimbabwe”s performance could have been better with more preparations and support from government, since it was our first time we also took a number of lessons for improvement in the future. We need to go back to our drawing board and implement what we have learnt.
“We are at developmental stage as a nation and having such kind of exposure means a lot for us and the players. The defeat was not heavy as even other countries were losing by the same margin for example Zambia, Madagascar this also means that teams from our region are at the same level and given this kind of exposure we will be better next time,” Chirowodza said.
The tournament also featured the youth (Under-18) category and Nigeria won in this age group.
Zimbabwe’s Under-18s missed qualification when they came second behind Zambia during the regional competition last year.
Online Reporter