Queens go into camp next week

Malawi National Netball Team, the Queens, are expected to go into camp next week in preparation for the 2022 Commonwealth Games set for Birmingham in England, according to coach Peace Chawinga-Kalua.

The Queens are in Group B at the games which start in July. Their opponents are  New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago.

While their opponents are having test matches every month, the Queens have resorted to home training.

Kalua said the Queens were supposed to go into camp in March, failed.

She said: “Hopefully, next week we will be going into camp to continue.  We are just continuing with home training. The players are doing home training programmes and it’s going on well.”

Uganda, on the other hand, were in Barbados for friendly games where they won two of their three games

The Queens’ first opponents, Northern Ireland, who they will face on July 30, have lined up international games for the whole of April.

Northern Ireland will play Australia  on April 5, South Africa on April 7,  Jamaica on April 8 and Barbados on April 11.

New Zealand will play England, Jamaica, Australia and South Africa in the same month but Malawi is yet to secure a friendly.

Netball Association of Malawi general secretary Isaac Chimwala insists that they are arranging a friendly with Namibia.

“Like I told you before, we are in talks with the Namibian Netball Association in relation to the friendly and they have agreed. We just need to fix the dates. Even today [yesterday] we talked. Once everything is sorted out I will communicate,” he said.

On world rankings, Malawi are seventh, Uganda sixth, New Zealand second, Trinidad and Tobago 11th.

The Queens will play Northern Ireland on July 30, then on  August 1 they will face New Zealand. Their third game will be against Trinidad and Tobago on August 3 while the final group fixture against Uganda is on August 4.