Men in netball tournament

Nozipho Ncube/Rutendo Karuva
THE year 2016 could be that year when Zimbabwean men announced their arrival on the netball circuit.

Last week there was a mini national menaï¿½ï¿½s netball tournament in Bulawayo that had teams from Harare, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South.

The men really played like aï¿½?ladiesaï¿½? with a wealth of experience.

aï¿½?Male players have a good understanding of the rules and their technical level is as good as the one you would see in the womenaï¿½ï¿½s super league. Female players can learn a lot from these guys because they are very good,aï¿½? said Peter Ncube from the Bulawayo Netball Association.

Among the six male teams that battled it out on 15 and 16 October at St Columbus High School, three winning teams walked away with trophies.

In first place were Sparrows with 12 points, followed by Black Panthers with nine points then Highlanders with six points.

Medals were awarded as prizes for best players. Sparrows walked away with four, namely for best goalkeeper, centre, with their captain scooping two for best goal shooter and most disciplined player, while Black Panthers scooped three for best goal defender, wing defender as well as wing attacker and Highlanders got one for goal attacker.

Initially seven teams were expected but only five teams showed up, these were Bulawayoaï¿½ï¿½s Black Panthers, Highlanders , Eleven Stars, Sparrows from Harare and Goldreef from Mawabeni. Teams from Botswana experienced problems at the border while other teams that were expected failed to get funding for the trip.

Sibonginkosi Tshuma, Black Panthers coach urged more men to partake in netball.

aï¿½?Three quarters of the men in my team are married men and they play very well, playing netball doesnaï¿½ï¿½t necessarily mean that you are gay. I advise men to come and join us because sometimes we experience a shortage of male players simply because men are scared that they will labelled as gay if they played netball,aï¿½? said Tshuma.

Maxwell Thomas Nyandoro, the tournament organiser applauded the people who turned up to watch the games and thanked them for their support.

aï¿½?There were close to 120 spectators and this is quite an impressive number considering that it was the first time for Bulawayo to host a male netball tournament. We are going to make sure this will be an annual event and possibly have tournaments like this one every October,aï¿½? said Nyandoro.

Itaï¿½ï¿½s becoming increasingly clear the sport is being taken seriously in Zimbabwe as we have seen Black Panthers and Sparrows participating in tournaments outside the country and the Zimbabwe female under 21 team has qualified for the prestigious World Youth Netball Cup to be held in Botswana next year.