Queens appeal for support
Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) says it will fight for the Malawi Queens to maintain the sixth position on the world rankings announced on Monday.
Malawi has crawled back into the world’s top six in World Netball’s latest rankings, rising from seventh position to sixth and swapping positions with Uganda.
South Africa and Zimbabwe maintain positions fifth and 13th respectively.
In an interview yesterday, NAM vice-general secretary Chimwemwe Bakali said the focus is now mantaining sixth position.
He said: “The new ranking is a great news for netball. Now, the most important thing we need to do is to sustain the position or even improve more. We are geared to do that but we need to be playing more games at international competitions such as Test Series.
“To do this, we need more support from the corporate world. It should not just be government. We all know government, which is the main sponsor, has many responsibilities.”
Bakali said South Africa and Uganda do well because they usually have busy calendars and participate in various international games.
“Most times we get to be disadvantaged because our competitors are always participating in various tournaments,” he said.
On her part, Malawi Queens coach Peace Chawinga-Kaluwa said was excited with the news.
“It’s something good to be in top six because if you might remember there are tournaments which are played by top six teams only. An example is the Fast 5 which Malawi didn’t participate in last month because we were out of the top six bracket. So, it’s good news,” she said.
However, the Queens coach added the team will not be seeded during the forthcoming Netball World Cup draw on November 30 in South Africa because only the top-four ranked teams lead the four groups.
Continental rivals, Uganda and South Africa participated in the Fast 5 tournament which ended on November 6 in New Zealand.
Uganda beat Jamaica and Australia 33-22 and 32-30 respectively in the round robin format of the game, but lost to England, New Zealand and South Africa.
On the other hand, South Africa won silver medal. The Proteas, as South Africa are known, went down 34-20 to Australia on Sunday in the final.
