THE gallant Zimbabwe Netball team returned home this evening from a tour of duty in the African Safari, where they missed out on a podium finish and settled for fifth place.
Although their final position was one place in the negative from their fourth-place finish at the same tournament in South Africa, it is a commendable effort taking into cognisance that they were coming virtually from the wilderness and straight into the biggest continental showcase.
Sport had been in intensive care for the more significant part of the last two years due to a blanket ban by the government as a measure to contain the novel Coronavirus.
It was worse for contact sports like Netball, which were only allowed to return to practice recently.
As if that was not enough, the team level of support went back into default mode with limited assistance from the corporate world and virtually no support from the government.
When you find the Sports Supreme Body, the Sports and Recreation Commission poking its long nose into the affairs of legitimately elected bodies such as Zimbabwe Cricket and Zimbabwe Football Association, you wonder what role they play in the national teams’ well-being.
Of particular interest is their purported fight for equality for the girl child against their male counterparts when the team that raised the country’s flag high not so long ago at the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup in Liverpool laboured on the road to Namibia.
The Gems and their officials only made it to the border just before 6 pm this evening, quietly sneaking in just the same way they sneaked out for the continental expedition.
Gems signed off in style after beating Kenya 57-46 in their final match of the African Netball Championships in Windhoek, Namibia.
After losing all their matches against the top sides South Africa, Uganda and Malawi, who finished the tournament in their respective first to third place, a top-four finish was still a reality. However, the team will always look back to that shock defeat against Botswana, which costs them the fourth spot.
However, the match came on the backdrop of a gruelling double header that started with a defeat to Uganda in the morning and a one-goal win against Zambia in the afternoon.
As head coach Lloyd Makunde and team captain Felisitus Kwangwa put it, fatigue played a part in the defeat for a team that has not played competitively and as a unit in the last two years.
Hope is not lost, new Gems were unearthed, and the team can only get better by spending time on the court and getting the support they deserve, including the trigger-happy SRC.
