By Online Editor
As it stands, netball in Zimbabwe has 2 leagues. Netball Premier League (NPL) and Rainbow Amateur Netball League (RANL) and this has been met with mixed feelings whether it is healthy or not for the netball fraternity.
H- Metro reported on Monday that Zimbabwe Netball Association (ZNA) has registered NPL with the vibrant RANL left out in the cold. However, RANL a splinter group from the now defunct Netball Super League has been the Cinderella of the local netball after producing a remarkable number of players in the senior national squad for the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup in England.
With the advent of the NPL, Netball before the collapse of Netball Super League.
The mind boggling questions are , will it be healthy for the netball in the country to have two leagues?, is this not double- edged sword for instance the livelihood for the netball players have been extended but will this be of benefit at the senior and junior national level.
One may foresee confusion and disintegration in the national team as the national coach or selectors may sideline the unregistered league whereas best players may opt for the latter. This seems hazardous as the high competition between the leagues can end up strengthening the national teams at junior and senior level.
Employed netball players doing it part- time end up turning up for NPL and their performances can be outclassed by those in RANL who will be playing sport as their only source of livelihood or the vice versa in terms of performance.
Selectors in order to achieve one goal of sport to the girl child need to be transparent when selecting their teams for national duties at senior or junior level.
Although their names stand for two different league thus an amateur one and premiership one with RANL superseding the Premier League which is meant for the best players, that was the now- defunct Super league which is like the premier League as the what’s in a name philosophy is not alive in such scenario.
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