Tiga say Diamonds have an advantage

Tigresses have said their rivals Diamonds will have an advantage to win the Presidential National Netball Cup this afternoon as they will only play a single game.

Defending champions Tigresses are set to face Civonets Sisters in the semis this morning and the winner will meet Diamonds who are already in the finals at Area 30 Netball Court in the capital city. The loser in the Tigresses versus Civonets tie will battle it out against Blue Eagles Sisters for the third-slot that will curtain-raise the final in the afternoon.

The winner will cart home K4 million while the runners-up  will walk away with K2 million (US$4 773). The third-placed team will earn K1 million (US$2 386) while the fourth-placed teams will receive K800 000 (US$1 909).

Tiga’s coach Charles Mhango and his international goal-attacker Sindi Simtowe said as it is, the playing field is not level and Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) should have fixed today’s semi-final earlier other than on the same day of the final.

“The way it has been arranged is awkward because whichever team qualifies for the final, will be at a disadvantage as they would have played a semi-final game earlier on..

“All this is happening due to incompetence of some officials who were the cause of the abandonment, but I do not want to say much because we are already in NAM’s bad books.

“So, in the event that we win against Civonets, we’ll still face Diamonds, but this should serve as a lesson to NAM to do better next time,” he said.

Simtowe said: “It is obvious that Diamonds will have an advantage, but we have no choice other than to play and give out our best shot.

“Despite that, we are set to defend the title on Saturday.”

However, NAM general secretary Carol Bapu said regardless of the situation, the matches will go ahead.

“The events that led to the abandonment of the tournament has caused all these complications.

“But whatever the case, the games will still be played and we do not entirely agree with the perspective that Diamonds will have an advantage because its not a new phenomenon for a team to play two games in one day in netball,” argued Bapu.

Diamonds captain Caroline Mtukule-Ngwira said they are ready to meet any team that will come in their way.

“We do not mind playing either Tigresses or Civonets. We are ready for the finals,” she said.

Asked to comment on observations that they will have an advantage in the final match, Ngwira said: “Not really because the team that qualifies for the final will have time to rest and they will also have an advantage in that they would have got the feel of the action.”

The national finals were abandoned over two months ago after Tigresses were disqualified from the tournament when they jostled NAM treasurer Abigail Sharrif after she took one of their players Laureen Ngwira to a Lilongwe clinic where she allegedly failed a pregnancy test.

As a result, NAM banned Ngwira from contesting in domestic competitions and instructed the Malawi Queens to sideline Tigresses players including Simtowe, Grace Mwafulirwa Mhango and Beatrice Kadango for the Fast5 Netball Series in New Zealand.