Queens face South Africa in opener
Malawi national netball team will begin their 2019 Africa Netball Championship with a tie against hosts South Africa on Friday.
The two will meet at Bellville Velodrome in Cape Town in a fourth game of the day.
On Saturday, the Queens will face Zambia and Lesotho.
Depending on their position at the end of the group stages, Malawi will either battle in semifinals or position five to six play-offs.
Malawi and the hosts are in group A alongside Zambia and Lesotho whereas group B has defending champions Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania.
Queens Coach, Peace Chawinga- Kaluwa, said her charges face an uphill task to reclaim the trophy which they last won in 2012 and surrendered the following year to South Africa on home soil.
Malawi have, in the previous two editions, finished as runners-up.
In the last two editions of the championship, Malawi finished twice behind Uganda in Kampala in 2017 and in Lusaka, Zambia, last year.
Chawinga-Kaluwa is not underrating any of her opponents and she believes she has picked a strong squad ready for the challenge.
“We know it will be tough but we need to start strongly to make our intent clear,” she said.
Former Queens skipper, Emmie Waya-Chongwe, has advised the senior side to impress at the championship to improve its world rankings.
“At the World Cup in England they performed well because they finished sixth. Now they need to improve to move up on the world rankings,” she said.
This year’s championship with run from October 18 to 22.
