Ellina Mhlanga — The Zimbabwe Netball Association is today expected to announce the final team to represent the country at the forthcoming Vitality Netball World Cup 2023.
The tournament being staged on African soil for the first time is due to take place from July 28 to August 6 in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Nedbank-sponsored Gems are set to make their second successive appearance at the global event after their maiden appearance in 2019, in Liverpool, England.
"The official national team has been selected after months of intensive training and preparation. The unveiling of the team will be held on Wednesday the 28th of June 2023 at Cresta Oasis, Harare at 10:00 am," said the Gems spokesperson Maimba Mapuranga.
Sixteen teams will converge in South Africa for the competition.
Zimbabwe were drawn in Pool A together with Australia, Fiji and Tonga.
Pool B is made up of England, Malawi, Scotland and Barbados while Jamaica, South Africa, Wales and Sri Lanka make up Pool C.
Pool D consists of New Zealand, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago, and Singapore.
This is the first time the Netball World Cup is taking place on the African continent.
The technical team led by coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki have been working with the provisional squad at Girls High School, mainly the local based players as the foreign-based were expected to join camp next week.
The three foreign-based players include UK-based captain Felisitus Kwangwa, Australia-based shooter Joice Takaidza and Nalani Makunde and it remains to be seen if all the three will make the final team.
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The senior national team has been engaging the men's select side for some practice matches as part of their preparations and had two matches over the weekend.
Speaking to The Herald his week, Mutsauki said they have been making progress but still need to work on the team's defence.
With the announcement of the final team expected day, the technical team will be working on polishing up to ensure they are ready for the tournament.
"It's now our third week in camp and right now I am happy with the performance of the team. The team is showing some encouraging progress and that makes us happy as the technical department because so far the team was able to play with the men's side during the weekend and they played well.
"I am not worried about winning, what is important to me is their performance and team work. "We are expecting the team to work hard, whether we win or lose. We just want to see if they are able to implement what we are doing in training, achieve our goals and what we would have planned . . . They did well winning the matches.
"But still we have a lot of work to do looking at the team defence. We will continue working on team defence because it's critical if we want to win games.
"But right now I am happy because the signs are there, there is an improvement. They are able to win the ball in the middle of the court, and that is what we want," said Mutsauki.
