admin
Ellina Mhlanga
Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Netball Association executive is scheduled to meet this weekend in Harare to map the way forward for their programmes after they were approved to resume their activities.
So far 32 national sport associations have been approved to resume their activities and ZINA are among those associations.
ZINA president, Leticia Chipandu, said they are going to meet this Sunday at St Peter’s School in Mbare to discuss how they will progress since there are a number of events they are expecting next year.
“We want to look at our national teams. We are meeting on Sunday for proper plans. The league can’t go on now but we need to have some activities like a tournament for our Super League and Division One teams.
“The nitty gritties will be discussed at the executive meeting at St Peter’s School. We just want to brainstorm and find out what we can salvage.
“There is a possibility of going to Morocco next year but because of the Covid-19 pandemic nothing is definite. There is the Pent Series in Namibia, it’s likely to be in August or earlier, and there is the Africa Championships, most likely to take place in Namibia.
“We have COSANA Under-23 next year, COSANA Club Championships and we want to start preparing for the Region Five Games next year… So we want to see what we can do, we have to plan ahead. People have been keen to play netball,” said Chipandu.
One of their major drawbacks this year due to the pandemic was the Young Gems missing on the opportunity to qualify for the World Youth Cup to take place next year in Fiji.
They had been preparing for the qualifiers but they were eventually cancelled. The qualifiers were expected to take place in May and they were postponed before the International Netball Federation later announced the cancellation of the qualifiers due to the pandemic.
Instead of qualifiers, the INF then used the world rankings for teams to qualify and for the Africa region the top three countries — South Africa, Malawi and Uganda — earned their tickets to compete at global showcase.
Zimbabwe are currently ranked fourth in Africa.
Having qualified for the 2017 edition held in Botswana where they finished ninth, the development was a blow for the Young Gems who were looking forward to challenging for a place again at next year’s edition.
“We have been badly disadvantaged because of that.
“We are number 12 in the world, they used the rankings for the senior teams to invite teams. . . We didn’t qualify not because we failed but that system of world rankings disadvantaged us because in Africa we are number four.
“We were so prepared for the qualifiers, we started our selection for the team in 2018 and started training in 2019. We were so sure we would qualify.
“It was heartbreaking when they were told that they were no longer going because they were training.
“We put it up with the INF (International Netball Federation) through the continental body to say we are not happy but we have not had a response,” said Chipandu.
While there are several events they are considering for next year, Chipandu said they will have a better picture after the executive meeting on Sunday.
Online Reporter