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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe national cestoball teams are set to make history when they compete in the game’s first ever World Cup in Bangalore, India, next year.
The game is relatively new in this country and after a two-year disturbance to their global fiesta schedule due to the Covid-19 scourge, the Cestoball World Cup will now be staged between April 23-29, 2023.
Zimbabwe and Kenya are the two countries representing the continent at the 16-team jamboree.
And Zimbabwe are leaving nothing to chance with both the male and female teams starting camp in Harare today for the initial preparations.
The teams were picked following a two-day trial that ran from December 10 at Allan Wilson School.
Twenty-five male and 20 female players are expected to report for camp today with each team set to be trimmed to 15 players before departure to India.
The men’s team are under the tutelage of veteran handball administrator Daniel Mutandwa with renowned hockey coach Ziviso Mutambisi being his assistant.
Annamaria Jirimwe is in charge of the women’s side.
Zimbabwe Cestoball Association president, Amon Madzvamuse, said the country is aiming a podium finish in both categories.
“We have done everything to try and put up formidable teams on the ground. We called for trials last weekend and the response was overwhelming. Several players came from different provinces to try out their luck,” said Madzvamuse.
“We are happy with the teams selected by the technical teams. We are holding periodic camps with these teams as we build up for the World Cup. This is the first time a Cestoball World Cup will be held and we are happy to be part of history.
“We are going there representing not only Zimbabwe but, together with Kenya, also representing the continent. So we need to be competitive, try to fight for the badge and possibly win medals in these finals. We are holding periodic camps so that the teams will get to gel as we prepare for the global showcase.
“The first camp starts tomorrow (today) until next Monday. We will hold another one in January and try to do that regularly.”
Madzvamuse confirmed that most of the players in camp also have experience playing other sports like rugby, football and handball. “The good thing is that we have players who already know what it means to be competitive.
“They are players who have just joined cestoball from other codes like football, netball and korfball among other disciplines. “We are happy to have such players because they already know what’s required for a team to be competitive,” Madzvamuse said.
His administration has already started knocking on corporate doors as they look to raise the requisite resources for the meet next year.
The former Zimbabwe Handball Federation boss said his newly-established sport association has already begun engaging Naph and Nash as they are angling to introduce the sport in schools next year before coming up with a professional national league.
Cestoball is a sport created in Argentina in 1897. During the conference in Buenos Aires and Santa Rosa in 1986, the sport changed the name to cestoball with the purpose of making the old Argentine sport called ”pelota al cesto” more dynamic and to bring its rules into closer harmony with korfball and netball.
Players drive the ball towards the hoop by passing it amongst their teammates. Players can score a goal by shooting the ball into the hoop anywhere in the field.
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