Be serious with Malawi Queens
I vividly remember those old days when my Standard Eight teacher at Chitawira Primary School in Blantyre, after noticing lackadaisical attitude towards education gave a class of unruly pupils a simple piece of advice.
She stood in front of the classroom, fuming with rage and spoke in a loud and clear language to make sure that the advice sank into our ears. She said those who fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
That advice still rings in my head and I have learnt the discipline of preparation ahead of anything.
It is disturbing to note that Malawi national netball team, popularly known as Malawi Queens, who are expected to participate in the Fast5 Netball World Series set for Melbourne, Australia, will go into camp on Sunday to start preparations.
Due to funding problems, the national coach delayed in releasing the squad for the prestigious netball tournament, which is expected to throw off on October 28.
It is boring that every year we keep on singing the same gospel of lack of funding and yet the authorities knew as far back as two years ago about this tournament in Melbourne.
It sounds ridiculous that the financers of the team, which is the Ministry of Sports, seem not to care about the outcome of the Queens’ results at this tournament; to them so long they participate.
For the Queens to be in camp for three weeks when their colleagues have been preparing for a long time is unimaginable.
This is the team that we all cherish as our true sports ambassadors and yet they are not getting any support.
Apart from subjecting the ladies to torturous preparations when preparing for such important assignments, the government has successfully stripped them off their dignity by paying them peanuts in game-bonuses.
No one would dispute that our netballers are poor and that their families hate them for their association with the sport.
These are the ladies who star on that big stage and yet their children have no food on the table.
As the nation continues with the painful process of surveying the slow meltdown of the game, what is very clear is that in the absence of political-will to invest in the game, we cannot save it from extinction.
No wonder South Africa, which used to be our whipping girls are ranked better than us on International Netball Federation table.
The time is too short for the coach to determine whether the players he has included in the squad would deliver at that big stage.
He needed more time to assess and drill them.
Otherwise, I wish if that lady teacher, who now resides in Soche East Township, would shout the same piece of advice in the ears of our Sports Minister, Francis Kasaila.
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