Netball qualifiers to test Botswana�s readiness

Correspondent | Friday July 22, 2016 12:27

The participating countries include African netball powerhouses Malawi and South Africa, minnows Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The games will be played at the University Of Botswana (UB) Indoor Sports Centre. The Botswana Netball Association (BONA) announced late last year that they will appoint an international coach to work with the team for the World Cup.

Botswana’s competition is expected to come from South Africa and Malawi.

The South African team is made up of the majority of the players that took part in Netball World Championships where South Africa emerged champions.

 The team will face stern competition from the Malawians, who come into the tournament as one of the most experienced group. Although they started their preparations late, Malawi have sent a formidable team that was selected during the President’s competitions that took place recently. 

Uganda and Namibia will be dark horses in this year’s tournament, although the two countries have been in good form.

The Namibians were expected to arrive late yesterday while the Ugandans were first to arrive as they touched down in the country on Tuesday as they seek to acclamatise with conditions in the country.

The qualifiers will start on Sunday, with Lesotho and Malawi in the morning, while South African take on Zambia at 10am. Zimbabwe and Swaziland clash in a noon fixture while Botswana open their account with a game against Lesotho at 4pm.

The last match of the day features Malawi and Namibia at 7pm. Botswana made its Youth World Cup debut in 2005 in Florida, USA where they finished ninth position out of 20 countries.

The Youth World Cup takes place in Gaborone between July 8 and 16. A total of 70 games will be played in the nine days with 20 countries taking part.