Mutsauki plans ahead

Ellina Mhlanga

Zimpapers Sports Hub

WITH the Zambezi Eagles set to be back in action at the Telkom Netball League next month, coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki says he is likely to make a few changes to the side to allow the players more time for evaluation and assessment.

Having taken part in the TNL Power Week One, the Zimbabwe select side are set to return to South Africa for Power Week Two from June 13 to 17.

Mutsauki, who is the senior national team coach, is also in charge of the Select side for the games, serving as friendlies.

“We don’t have height, especially our midcourt players. We have individuals that are good but need help from the other players. So, there is a gap. I won’t mention names, but there is a huge gap and we really need to work on it.

“For our passes to move fast, we need tall players.

“Looking at the whole team, we have work to do also on our defence. We need to keep looking, also working with the players we already have.

“But this time I don’t see us making a lot of changes because we want to maintain the players that we have and beef up with one or two.

“And make one or two changes so that we have more time to evaluate them and see how far they can go if we have at least a week or so of training. See if they can adjust because so far, they have not got-ten that opportunity,” said Mutsauki.

While the Zimbabwe Netball Association are fielding a team at the competition for the second time, having done so in 2019 when the Gems were preparing for the World Cup in Liverpool, this is the first time that they have decided to use a development squad playing as a Select side.

ZINA believes that using a Select outfit helps them to focus on building a team that would be ripe for future major competitions such as the World Cup and the African Championships.

The main goal is qualification and competing at the World Cup in 2027.

Mutsauki would want to have more time in camp with the team ahead of their return for the second week of competition at the TNL games.

“We had hoped we could get at least two weeks in camp, then we would assess the changes we in-tended to make… we get the height, we train, and we get a friendly before we go back, I think it can help us improve some areas.

“We are hoping that these youngsters can take us to 2027 and help us qualify because right now we can play these games, win or lose, we are not expecting instant results.

“We are focusing more on building a team that will take us to 2027. We want to qualify for the World Cup in Australia.

“So, we are saying with this team we are trying to build, if we then merge with some of the Gems players, we can get a very good team. That’s our ultimate goal,” noted Mutsauki.

The Gems coach believes participating in such a competition will also benefit the juniors as they rope in some of the upcoming players.

“This time we have been afforded the opportunity to assess players who are not yet part of the Gems, those that have not had the chance to play for the national team and we still have time to carry out this exercise.

“I think if we keep doing this, it will also strengthen our junior policy, whereby we will have juniors feeding into the Gems.

“I think this is something positive for us and very important,” said Mutsauki.