Liverpool bound Gems coach Lloyd Makunde said he is elated with the progress being depicted by the national senior women netball team as they prepare for the prestigious tourney to be held in England July during their training session at Stodart Stadium last Friday.
Gems have caught the eyes of sponsors more than the Mighty Warriors when the latter qualified for the 2016 Olympics portraying a step change in the girl sport sponsorship.
19 girls are already in camp since 25th March with the 20th player expected from Australia this week to make the squad full.Although the training practice started on 25th March , the netball team also used the Diamond netball tourney last December in SA ,friendly match against Uganda this year and Telkom tourney in SA this year to prepare for the global event.
Despite losing to Uganda and South Africa (SA), Coach Makunde is happy with his charges’performance.
“Considering that Uganda and South Africa are way above us on world rankings, the lose didn’t deter us.On previous occasions, we used to be thumped on a scoreline with 20-30 goals margin and this time around we lost with 4 and 9 goals margin to Uganda and South Africa respectively”, he said.
In the first group stages, Zimbabwe clash against Sri-Lanka, Australia and Northern Ireland.Australia are a powerhouse but Makunde promised fire works in all the games they wil play.
“Australia can give us hard time vehicle with the other two, we don’t have much competition but we are not going to be complacent as we will play every game as the final”, he added.
Top three teams in each group at the first group stage will qualify for the second group stage .Gems in their maiden appearance are anticipating for a wonderful finish at the netball world cup.
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