What have we achieved?

We have always been used to seeing our national netball team making headlines on the international scene over the years, but I do not think any Malawian would be happy with the sort of headlines we have been making in the last few days. The Queens have lost their royalty and have now become the whipping girls at the Fast5 World Netball Series taking place down under or thereabouts.

Obviously, people have to ask why the sudden fall from grace and several explanations can be proffered by the netball authorities, but there is no running away from the fact that we sent a weakened squad to the tournament following the exclusion of some of the main players for the team. The decision by the Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) to leave out Bingu Tigresses players has spectacularly boomeranged on them.

Now, I am a strong advocate of discipline everywhere and I would never condone any acts of disorder by anyone. Any individual that brings about chaos must be brought in line and NAM’s determination to punish Tigresses and their players is something I would like to admire. Where I differ with them is how to “operationalise” that resolve to ensure sanity within the game that has become the nation’s pride.

By precluding Tigresses players from national team selection, NAM succeeded in punishing the concerned players because I would like to believe that it is the ambition of any athlete to compete at the highest level. There is no doubt in my mind that the pride of the players has been hurt considerably. What I am failing to see, however, is how Tigresses as a team would have been punished by that move and decision.

Instead, NAM has punished itself, the national team and indeed our collective national pride. Does it really make sense that all of us should pay that price? Was there no other way of punishing Tigresses and their players without embarrassing every other Malawian in the process? I must say I am very interested to hear from NAM what they have achieved in coming up with this irrational decision.

Away from netball, it is a crucial period in the English Premier League when the season crosses the quarter mark this weekend. Without doubt, the pick of the fixtures is this evening’s late kick-off when my Liverpool visit the league leaders, the Mesut Ozil-inspired Arsenal, at the Emirates. This is a fixture that has all the makings of a game-changer as we move into the second quarter of what promises to be a thrilling season.

Both sides have had impressive starts and one would say they have been helped by kinder opening fixture lists as either side has, so far, only met one opponent among the six teams that are believed to be fighting for things at the top end of the table. Matches among this cluster of teams are going to become very decisive and whoever claims three points at the end of today would have made a strong statement of intent.

There will also be strong interest in the fixture by the other sides in that group because it gives them the chance to catch up or open a gap with either one or both of them. Of the teams interested, Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea will be the more likely to profit from any slip as they could finish the weekend at the top of the table. For a team that has already met both Manchester giants and Tottenham Hotspur, that could be very telling.