‘Queens need fresh blood’

Malawi National Council of Sports [MNCS] has called for the need to identify new netball players to replace the current crop for the Malawi National Netball Team.

MNCS Sports and Regulation Development Officer Felix Yola said this at the end of a five-day coaching and umpiring course which ended on Sunday in Mangochi.

Yola said there was a huge gap of knowledge in terms of terminology, techniques and rules among umpires and coaches, which is largely affecting the development of netball at grassroots level.

“We as Sports Council, we noted that we have a few coaches who can help improve netball locally. That is why we engaged about five tutors to help in imparting skills and knowledge in local netball coaches in districts across the country,” he said.

Yola said, through the process, the new coaches will produce new netball players who can be signed by clubs that supply players to the senior side.

One of the tutors Joseph Mazaza said Queens have been relying on players that were identified over a decade ago and their performance at international level was dwindling.

“As a result, the performance of the Queens has been going down. So, we need to start creating space which can allow some new girls to learn netball and be signed by national clubs,” he said.

Some of the tutors included legendary Mary Waya and Peace Chawinga-Kaluwa.