A feud has ensued between Netball Association of Malawi (Nam) and Malawi National Netball Team Coach Peace Chawinga Kaluwa over the team’s failure to go into camp in preparation for the 2023 World Cup finals in Cape Town, South Africa.
Chawinga Kaluwa said she had planned to start camp training for her players on May 14 but Nam had cancelled such arrangements on two occasions without any communication.
“Nam secretariat has been playing hide and seek games. They never communicated on why my plans to start camping failed. The secretariat is supposed to be communicating with the technical team but this is not happening. So how do we work like this?
“According to what I have gathered, the General Secretary [Isaac Chimwala] cancelled our hearing or communicating to us. No consultations whatsoever. We wanted to train from May 14 to 20,” she said. initial camping plans without
Chawinga Kaluwa said after enduring the recent frustration, they are hoping to get started by this weekend.
“We are keeping our fingers crossed with the hope that things will work out by end of the week. We expect Nam to tell us to go into camp. However, there has not been anything this far. Not even a verbal message. So in short, Nam is not supporting our plans as technical,” the former Queens captain said.
Chimwala admitted making changes to the camping dates because Malawi National Council of Sports had not yet given approval.
“We were waiting for Sports Council to give us the go-ahead. I believe that by the end of this week everything will be in place and we will be calling the players into camp. We have already communicated this to the head of technical,” he said.
Sports Council Public Relations and Communications Officer Edgar Ntulumbwa said they received communication about the camp training scheduled to start on May 27.
“So we are yet to advise Nam. They wrote us that they want the team to go into camp from May 27. But we are yet to advise on this matter as it depends on the availability of funds,” Ntulumbwa said.
The government, through Sports Council, made a commitment to support the Queens financially ahead of the World Cup which throws off in July.
Council board chairperson Sunduzwayo Madise reaffirmed the commitment during the welcoming ceremony of the team from the PacificAus Netball Series in Australia early this month.
Malawi returned from the tournament with silver medals.
Peter Fote is a Sports Journalist with huge experience in radio and Television reporting, production and presentation. He once worked with Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and is currently working for Times Media Group.
