Zimbabwe’s sports fans had a sigh of relief recently after the Gems made their maiden qualification at the 2019 World Cup with the Sables fighting vigorously for a stay in the Africa Gold Cup as the national teams’ performance for major tournaments has been in doldrums.
By Tendai Chisiri
The Chevrons‘s pathetic performance in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers 2018 had dampened the hopes of many, who feared another heartbreak from any national team at prestigious tournaments. United Arab Emirates eliminated Chevrons in the ICC World Cup 2019 race early this year in March putting a gloomy picture on the national sports teams.
Gems as the Zimbabwe netball senior team are affectionately known achieved a feat ,first of its kind in the country’s netball fraternity as they made their debut appearance at the World Cup in Liverpool, England in July next year.
The Gems who won the African Championships title in 2015 finished third behind Uganda who retained the African Championships title and Malawi clinched the bronze medal. Malawi were challenging for the African title although they had already booked their place at the World Cup.
As the African Championships were also serving as the World Cup Qualifier, Zimbabwe and Uganda are in the World Cup 2019.Other African states, South Africa and Malawi had already qualified automatically for the World Cup on the virtue of their International Netball Federation World Rankings.
Messages congratulating the senior women netball team poured from all sports fans in the country. Comments like” Amazing” and “Wonderful achievement “made the day when the topic of the Gems’ success was introduced in sports groups.
Some fans went as far as to claim that Zimbabwe women in sports are better than men and many hoped that the Gems will do much than what the ladies soccer team did when the latter qualified for the Olympics in 2016.
Sables’ fall could have put an egg on the face of the Zimbabwe Rugby Union administration after having roped in a new foreign Coach Peter De Villiers from South Africa.
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