By GRACE CHAILE –

THE Handball Association of Zambia (HAZ) has dropped four players from its initial 20-member team currently in camp preparing for the African Nations Championships because of inadequate funds.
HAZ president Victor Bwalya-Banda said a player and three officials had been dropped from the team after the association revised its budget ahead of the continental championship that starts on March 14 to 30 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Banda said in an interview yesterday that HAZ has reduced its initial budget from K626,000 to K308,000 following poor response from the corporate world in assisting the association raise the money ahead of the tournament.
He said HAZ has so far managed to raise K100,000 that came in material form and that only eight, from the 16 air tickets that are needed have been bought at a cost of K40,000.
“We have so far managed to secure passports, a set of playing kit, eight air tickets and insurance. But we still need assistance to enable us buy the remaining air tickets and cover accommodation costs. We are still appealing to the corporate world to come on board and help us send a team to Kenya,” he said.
Banda said the team that had been training for the past weeks in Lusaka would get into residential camp tomorrow at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) to intensify training.
Meanwhile, Banda said Zambia was this Saturday expected to play a friendly game against Zimbabwe at National Sports Development Centre (NASDEC) in Lusaka to assess their preparations ahead of the championship.
Zambia has been drawn against Southern Africa’s top ranked team Angola and Kenya in group C.
The Under-20 boys’ championship will be the final qualification round for African countries to the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics slated for China in August.