By GRACE CHAILE –
ZAMBIA netball team coach Pauline Nsombo has dropped two players from the team that broke camp yesterday ahead of the Africa and World Netball Championship to be held later this year.
Netball Association of Zambia (NAZ) general secretary Pritchard Ngoma said Miriam Milambo of Green Eagles and Patricia Chileshe of Medicals were axed from the team due to lack of competitiveness.
Zambia will take part in the African Championships in May but the Confederation of African Netball (CAN) is yet to name a venue after Zambia withdrew from hosting the tournament.
The team will later participate at the Sydney 2015 World Netball Championship slated for August.
Ngoma said in an interview at the National Sports Development Centre (NASDEC) that Milambo and Chileshe have been dropped because the coach felt she needed players that can bring in competition into the team.
He said the coach has called Orient Mwanza of NAPSA Stars while the other is yet to be decided to replace the hatchet players.
Zambia is in pool D at the World Championships alongside Fiji, Wales and Uganda and Nsombo has summoned 22 players into her provisional team that will be trimmed to the final 12 ahead of the tournament to be held from August 7 to 16.
Meanwhile, Ngoma said the technical bench was happy with the players’ fitness after breaking camp but was quick to add that more work needs to be done to ensure the team was ready.
“In the area of fitness, I must say that the players are okey. But more has to be done on shooting, endurance and many others. I am sure this will be tackled in the next camping which starts on February 16,” he said.
He said in the next camping, the technical bench will focus on getting the players ready for the Africa Cup Championship in May which was suppose to have been hosted by Zambia.
Ngoma said the possible host of the tournament have not yet been picked by FINA but that South Africa has shown interest.
He said NAZ is working tirelessly to mobilise resources for the team and appealed to the corporate companies for sponsorship.
