Zimbabwe Netball Association are looking to build for the future when they field a select team at the Telkom Netball League that roars into life on Saturday at Sun City, North West, South Africa.
Playing under the name "Zambezi Eagles", the team's participation follows the acceptance of ZINA's request by South Africa Netball to be part of the league games.
Zambezi Eagles will feature in Power Weeks One and Two with 16 other teams expected to battle for silverware.
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The Spar Baby Proteas will also play as a guest team with their participation together with Zambezi eagles meant to be graded as friendly games.
Only the local teams will compete for local rankings.
Power week one runs from April 26 to May 4, while the second week will be held between June 13 and 17.
The team, led by Gems head coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki is scheduled to depart for South Africa today.
ZINA technical director John Banda said the tournament is meant to provide a platform for Zimbabwe to start preparing for the 2027 World Cup which is set to take place in Australia.
The qualifiers are scheduled for next year.
"Competitions do determine the type of teams that we put up.
"So, if you are looking at our focus here, we have a roadmap that we have, which is a strategic plan from 2024 up to 2027, leading to the World Cup games, which are scheduled to be held in Australia that is 2027.
"We need to have a roadmap in terms of how we will get there, in terms of building our player base, in terms of coming up with our training strategies and everything else.
"So, focusing on building up our player base, we are now looking at talent identification.
"We need to start from the grassroots, building up junior teams and everything else.
"These now can become our feeder teams into the national team. So, if you are looking at the national team again, by the time we get to 2027, because of age some of the players might not be able to play.
"So, we are supposed to put up some stopgap measures. How we have to cope with that. This is now why we took advantage of these competitions that are taking place in South Africa," Banda said.
The team has been in camp since for close to a week at Girls High School and Nedbank are their major benefactor in their endeavour.
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The Telkom Netball League (TNL) is South Africa's major domestic netball contest and it often draws coaches and scouts from across the region.
It is against this background that Zimbabwe's participation will be crucial in their intentions to start building for the next global contest.
Last year, the Gems participated at the Celtic Cup in Scotland which is the first major international friendly tourney they have ever participated in.
And the TNL will provide yet another platform for the Zimbabweans to evaluate themselves on a competitive stage.
Mutsauki said the games are a platform to assess new players who, in the near future, are meant to be integrated on to the Gems fold.
"For these games, we want to assess the new players that we have.
"So far, I am happy with the performance of the players we have. They are doing well; they are improving almost every day.
"I am hopeful that it will reflect during the games, most of them it's their first time playing such games, being part of a national select side playing outside the country.
"So definitely they would want to showcase their talent.
"We were looking at players, aged 25 and below. We have Under-19s as well. I think we have three or so seniors to make the team stable and boost the juniors' confidence," said Mutsauki.
