adminMandla Moyo, Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe national Polocrosse team has stepped up preparations for the 2019 edition of the Polocrosse World Cup to be held in Adina, Australia as from 22-28 April.
The preparations have intensified since the beginning of this year resulting in the team playing a number of preparatory games around the country. Last weekend, they played three matches against the Irish whom they thrashed 3-0 during a one-sided series event played at Bulawayo Country Club.
In all the three games the team was untouchable winning in all the three meetings, a show that left the hard to please coach, Gavin Cocker, a happy man though still demanding more.
Also impressed by the performance of the team was team manager Leanne McBean who applauded the team for putting up a solid performance which resulted in a win in the series.
“I am happy for the team, both men and ladies put together similar efforts that saw us win even though the men scored the highest number of goals but at the end of the day it’s a team effort, that what matters. We are also calling for the corporate world and individuals to chip in with whatever they have to help us pay our bills when going to the world cup,” said McBean.
According to McBean, next week the team leaves for South Africa where they will rub shoulders against their South African counterparts.
“From 8 to 10 March we are going to South Africa for another series of competitions that start on Friday up to Sunday,’’ she said.
From South Africa the team will return to Harare to play more games before coming back to Bulawayo for more practice games. The team will then fly out of the country to Australia on 12 April for the much awaited world cup tournament.
In order to acclimatise the team will spend the whole week in Australia before the tournament roars into life to get a feel of the horses since in a Polocrosse game the host nation is responsible for providing all the participants with the horses.
Zimbabwe is in group B alongside their neighbours Zambia, USA and Australia. Winners from this group will play against runners up from the other group which is home to South Africa the reigning champions, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Teams that fail to make it out of the group stages will battle it out for the fifth position up to the last. According to the set up third-placed team in pool A will take on third-placed pool B, the same applies to the two fourth-placed teams.
derick.khumalo