Govt Backs Queens

Despite observers blaming lack of proper youth development, poor netball infrastructure and government’s laxity to motivate the netball players, for Malawi Queens’ slump in form, Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development Francis Kasaila has attributed the malaise to “lack of technical people” in the coaching panel.

For the first time in 20 years, the Queens fell outside the top-six bracket at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games last week.

“The Queens went there [at the games] without a coach and here we expected a miracle from them. We need people qualified enough to read and change the game while  the girls are playing,” said Kasaila.

When asked what the government is doing to motivate the Queens in terms of infrastructure development and good preparations ahead of international events as is the case with Queens’ rivals Proteas of South Africa and fast-improving Uganda’s She Cranes, the Minister was cryptic in his response.

“You cannot say we performed poorly at the games because of the things you have mentioned. For a start, the Queens took part in the Taini Jamison Trophy in New Zealand in preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Australia and also the three test series in England. The players are good but the only problem we have is the lack of a proper technical panel,” he said.

But this is in contrast to what Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) president Khungekile Matiya told Weekend Nation last week, saying: “How do they expect us to perform with no infrastructure and limited resources? How can you camp for a major tournament for seven days and expect to do well?

“Uganda are second when it comes to funding [on the continent], no wonder they have improved. They started their preparations way back in January.”

However, while citing lack of proper youth development, poor netball infrastructure and players’ motivation as some of the major contributing factors to the dwindling standards of the sport, observers could not rule out the minister’s claim as another problem that needs to be sorted out.

The accusation comes at a time the NAM constitution bears no guidelines on the minimum qualification for one to be eligible for the position of a national netball team coach.

This gives NAM executive committee powers to appoint anybody as Malawi Queens’ mentor regardless of any basic coaching skills.

Without explaining what qualifications one should have to be Queens’ coach, sections 33.1 and 33.2 of the constitution stipulate that “[NAM] executive committee shall appoint a national netball coach, who shall be a full time employee of the association. [He/she] shall be head coach of the Malawi senior national netball team and head of the technical team”.

Section 33.3 states that the committee shall also assign netball coaches for the Under-21 and Under-20 national teams from time to time from the technical team, who shall not be full-time employees of the association.

Currently, Malawi has only five netball coaches certified by the International Netball Federation (INF), namely, Kukoma Diamonds coach Griffin Saenda, Tigresses mentor Peace Chawinga-Kaluwa, Blue Eagles Sisters coach Sam Kanyenda, newly-appointed shooters coach for English side Mavericks Mary Waya and retired national team coach Edith Kaliati.

Only Saenda is in the current technical panel but, due to an illness, he did not travel with the Queens at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, where the national netball team risks falling out of the top-six ranking for the first time in their history.

“Managing a team that is in the world netball’s top-six bracket definitely requires some minimum qualifications. It is vital to have a wide pool of qualified coaches to manage our clubs and the Queens,” said netball analyst Wesley Namasala.

“Iron sharpens iron and garbage in, garbage out; you cannot even have a successful youth development programme without a skilled and qualified mentor, with a philosophy that responds to the existing netball dynamics.”

Saenda, who is also NAM technical director, admitted yesterday that there is a need to have a documented benchmark for the national netball team coaching panel.

He, however, said the benchmark would only be put to good use once the country trains more netball coaches.

“We have a few coaches with advanced qualifications for national team duties as most individuals only hold basic coaching certificates. We need more coaches with advanced qualifications and this is what NAM is about to start focusing on,” he said.

In his personal capacity, Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) vice-general secretary John Kaputa suggested that it could be helpful to the progress of sports if government employed a well-versed national coach for each of the country’s major sports codes football, netball and athletics for not less than four years and deploy assistant coaches at regional level.

“For instance, the Commonwealth Games come after every four years and it is important to have a coach and assistants for that period for proper guidance. You cannot build a strong team when you change coaches at least every year,” he said.