Netball turns to Young Gems

Veronica Gwaze
THE Zimbabwe senior netball team that will represent the country at the 2023 World Cup in South Africa could be unleashed at the World Youth Cup scheduled for Fiji in 2021.

The young Gems will have a chance to prove their worth and fight for spots in the senior team.

This comes after Gems captain Perpetua Siyachitema and senior Goal Shooter Pauline Jani called time on their careers after the just ended Vitality Netball World Cup in Liverpool, England.

Young blood will be needed to bolster the squad ahead of 2023.

Gems assistant coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki, who is also the Under-21 coach, said the World Cup was an eye-opener on how to prepare for such showpieces.

“The just ended World Cup was full of lessons that we will use in preparation for the next tournaments.

“While we performed very well, we learnt a lot in terms of preparation.

“Truth be told, most of our senior players may no longer be there by 2023 so the time to start building a strong team is now,” he said.

“The age of the players is crucial. Some may pick injuries along the way. Also, some players may get married, fall pregnant and opt out.

“We need to have a backup plan. The solution is to have a wide pool ready to take any task at any given time.

“We therefore need to identify talent and we can only do that through different levels of competition.

Mutsauki called for more and regular provincial tournaments, explaining that these will provide a platform to identify talent.

In the past, netball has had sponsorship challenges.

However, as the World Cup preparations went into full swing, several sponsors emerged.

Mutsauki encouraged corporates to continue supporting netball, especially at the lower levels.

Citing the need to scout for tall talent, he highlighted that the Gems were disadvantaged due to height in some matches.

At the World Cup, Zimbabwe had the shortest average height while Sri Lanka provided the tallest player of the tournament – Tharjini Sivalingam – who is 2,06 metres tall.

Sivalingam emerged as the tournament’s top goal scorer.

“Sometimes talent has to be installed. Starting now, we can scout for tall girls and start grooming them for the future World Cup tournament.

At their maiden appearance at the global showcase, the Gems finished eighth.