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Ellina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
THE president of the Zimbabwe Netball Association Letitia Chipandu says they want an improved outcome at the forthcoming Netball World Cup and they are scheduled to have a meeting today in Harare to deliberate on their programme for this year including preparations for the event.
The global showpiece will be staged in Cape Town, South Africa, from July 28 to August 6.
It’s just over six months until the start of the global showcase and the Gems need to step up their build-up to the competition.
“Tomorrow (today) it’s like we are going through our programme for the whole year, our calendar of events and see how best we can achieve what we are planning.
“We are going to look at how to implement our road map to Cape Town we launched last year, then dates for the leagues.
“We are going to look at the requirements of the World Cup. We have received some of the requirements like the design for the kit, the specification, branding areas for the main sponsors, and the like.
“We are also going to look at our AGM (annual meeting) and finalise the dates; and then networking with the technical committee because for the World Cup, we are supposed to submit a long list of 30 players latest by April but we already have the bulk of the players,” said Chipandu.
The list will further be trimmed to 20 before coming up with 15 players — the final 12 and three travelling players.
Zimbabwe will be taking part at the netball jamboree for the second time, having made their historic debut appearance in 2019, in Liverpool, England. They finished on position eight at the 16-team competition.
Unlike their maiden appearance, they now know what to expect at this level and what needs to be done.
Chipandu said they have been following a number of foreign-based players apart from the regular faces such as captain Felisitus Kwangwa and Australia-based Joice Takaidza.
“On the long list we are including foreign-based players, we are likely to see more foreign based players in the team. We are very inclusive, the way we choose players is very inclusive that’s why we have provincial technical directors as well.
“2019 was our first appearance, we didn’t know how the World Cup would come out.
“We want to up our performance and make a mark at the World Cup. We are going there to be competitors for the top five. We have started preparing early, by the time we go to the World Cup, we should have a formidable team,” said Chipandu.
The team’s last competition was the Spar Diamond Challenge which was held in November last year in South Africa.
The Gems technical team has brought in a number of new faces, trying different combinations as part of the rebuilding exercise following the departure of some senior players after the last World Cup.
“What I can say is the young upcoming players are raring to go. They want to make a mark and want to get playing positions in the team. “When it comes to commitment and dedication, they put in everything and they are eager to learn… and that raises the level of competition because no one is guaranteed of a place in the team, you need to play hard, it’s your effort that will count to get you a place in the team.
“If we look at the performance of the Under-19 in Malawi, they played well, they just need to work on finishing and we have some (juniors) in the top 30… Blending juniors and seniors gives us quality,” said Chipandu.
Speaking to The Herald early this week, Gems coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki emphasised the importance of friendly matches for their build-up.
“What we are expecting is to get some friendly matches against teams like Malawi, Uganda, (and) if we can go to Europe it will help us. As the technical team, we would really want to have some friendly matches against strong teams.
“Sometimes losing is not important, what is important is what you benefit and when you start reducing the scores against those top teams, lose by small margins, it means you are improving that’s what we are looking for,” said Mutsauki.
At this year’s Netball World Cup, Zimbabwe will face Australia, Tonga and Fiji in Pool A.
Pool B is made up of England, Malawi, Scotland and Barbados. Jamaica, South Africa, Wales and Sri Lanka are in Pool C while Pool D consists of New Zealand, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago and Singapore.
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