Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) plans to host a five-nation test series to help the Malawi Under 21 National Netball Team prepare for the 2025 World Youth Netball Cup in Gibraltar next September.
NAM general secretary Yamikani Kauma yesterday said in an interview that they would love to host South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia youth sides for the test series between March and April.
She said they also want the Under-19 national side to take part in the event as part of their preparation for the 2025 Region 5 Youth Games scheduled for Namibia
“South Africa and Zambia also qualified for the World Youth Netball Cup while Zimbabwe and Namibia are some of the strong teams that can give us good games that can help our coaches to fine tune the teams. It is our hope that the plan will work out,” she said.
NAM’s suggestion comes after meeting the Malawi National Council of Sports to discuss the national teams’ preparations.
Meanwhile, the Sports Council has since asked NAM to come up with a budget for the national teams’ engagements by January 5.
Sports Council chief executive officer Henry Kamata yesterday said they will wait to look at the association’s budget first before determininh on how they can assist.
He said the same applies to associations that have predetermined international engagements between April 2025 and March 2026.
“We need to look at the budgets to see which areas the government can support and where there will be a need for the associations to do their part. We have asked NAM to revise their budget because theirn initial one had some gaps,” said Kamata.
Last week, newly-appointed Under-21 national netball team coach Noel Mussa said he will need at least two international matches to prepare for the world tournament.
Initially, NAM planned to send the Under-21 team to South Africa alongside the Malawi Queens for the recent Test Series as part of their preparations, but it did not materialise as the hosts said they could not raise a team as the majority of their players would be in school.
