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Ellina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
GEMS coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki says they need to have a broad base for selection as they regroup for the build-up to the 2023 Netball World Cup to be hosted by South Africa later in the year.
The senior national netball team is expected to go into camp on Sunday at Girls High School. The technical team is bringing in 30 players and Mutsauki said the idea is to create a wide base for selection and increase competition within the squad.
“We are expecting to go into camp with 30 players. From the 30 players, if we fail to go into camp with them at once, we can take 21, work with those 21 and assess the progress we will make, then we bring in the others.
“The idea of increasing the number of players to 30 is that we want to have a wide base for selection, so that we are not limited. We want to assess every player and see how they perform,” said Mutsauki.
The 2023 Netball World Cup is due to take place from July 28 to August 6 in Cape Town, South Africa, with 16 countries taking part.
Zimbabwe are one of the four African countries that will be at the global tournament. The other African countries are the hosts South Africa, Uganda and Malawi.
On Tuesday, Malawi announced their provisional squad set to go into camp this weekend.
Mutsauki said for this camp, they are expecting local-based players and pointed out they identified some players during the Premier Netball League pre-season tournament held in Chitungwiza last Saturday.
“We are expecting foreign-based players to join us for the other camps to follow because right now some are already playing. We are also trying to reduce costs, so that when we call them later, we have more time to assess them and their fitness level.
“We have some players we identified from the PNL tournament, very few who play on the midcourt. Some were already on the list, so we have two or three we identified that we can add to compete for selection,” said Mutsauki.
The Gems got their preparations rolling last year in November when they participated in the Spar Diamond Challenge in South Africa.
They only managed a draw against Scotland, and lost the other matches against hosts South Africa and South Africa’s President XII.
Mutsauki said they still need to work on the whole team and improve in the various departments considering how they performed at that tournament.
“We still have to work on the whole team taking into consideration the performance at the Diamond Challenge.
“Yes, they played well but it was not up to what we expected and it looked like the co-ordination was lacking.
“So we need to work on the combinations when we go into this camp.
“And if we can get one or two friendlies before we bring in foreign-based players or when they come, it will help us assess the team,” said Mutsauki.
The Zimbabwe Netball Association have indicated that they have engaged South Africa, Malawi and Uganda for friendly matches but are yet to finalise on the actual dates.
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