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Grace Chingoma-Senior Sports Reporter
AS the new Premier Netball League starts tomorrow, Zimbabwe Defence Forces Queens coach, Joel Sibanda, has called on stakeholders to sort out their differences.
The newly-established top-flight professional league will get underway tomorrow, with 20 teams, under a bubble set up in Harare and Masvingo.
In Harare group, there is the University of Zimbabwe, Blue Angles, Harare District, Ngezi, BTTC, Black Rhinos, Waterfalls, Correctional Stars and Harare City.
The Masvingo group, who will play their matches at the Great Zimbabwe Mashava campus, have Gold Reef, Beitbridge Border, Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Lupane University, Platinum Queens, Mutare City, Masvingo City Stars, Masvingo Pirates, Victoria Rhiders and Green Fuels.
PNL spokesperson, Yeukai Muchenu, said they will follow Covid-19 regulations.
Some of the big teams, including the 2019 Rainbow Amateur Netball League champions Correctional Queens, have opted to remain in the amateur league.
ZRP, Beta Queens, and Glow Petroleum have also remained in the RANL.
However, ZDF, Platinum Queens, Ngezi, Rhinos, Gold Reef, and Harare District have crossed over to the new league.
“We want to promote the girl child and it is crucial to have these differences sorted out and RANL, NPL should be united and have one league.
“This divides competition yet netball should be competitive.
“As coaches, we also look forward to facing each other, as competitive teams, even players, they look forward to playing each other. “We used to face competition from these teams but we are now restricted to only playing with Platinum, Gold Reef, and other less competitive teams, in the league.
“There should be no divisions and, as long as there are divisions, our netball will suffer and, in turn, it will affect the national team performance,” said Sibanda.
Turning to the weekend games, the coach said his team were ready for battle.
“We are now familiar with all the teams in the new league. The pre-season tournament helped us to get started again.
“The level of fitness we want is yet to be achieved but we are pushing and we will get there.
“The lockdown really affected us but that is water under the bridge now and we are focused on the new league.”
Online Reporter