By GWEN CHIPASULA –

ZAMBIA will today be aiming for a positive start when they take on hosts and pre-tournament favourites South Africa in the first game of the 2015 Diamond Netball Challenge.
The tournament draws four countries that will be representing Africa at the Sydney 2015 World Netball Championship in Malawi, South Africa (Spar Proteas), Uganda and Zambia.
Ugu Sports Centre in Margate on the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) south coast will host the tournament that ends this Friday and also act as a build-up for the four nations ahead of the Namibia 2015 Africa Netball Championship slated for June 28 to July 5 in Windhoek.
Netball lovers will have the opportunity to follow proceedings on SuperSport 4 as Zambia takes on defending champions South Africa in a 17:45 hours kick-off while the second match of the day pits Malawi against Uganda at 19:30 hours.
Zambia will tomorrow play Uganda before taking on neighbours Malawi on Thursday with finals set for Friday.
Netball Association of Zambia (NAZ) president Getrude Mukumi was hopeful that the team would give South Africa a good game by winning the first match to gain confidence as the tournament progresses.
Mukumi said the tournament would greatly help Zambian players get the needed exposure ahead of the African and World Cups. She said NAZ was scouting for K100,000 to enable the team proceed to Namibia for the Africa Cup when the Diamond Challenge ends.
“It is sad that our team had to travel to South Africa without enough funds after we failed to meet our K40,000 budget as we only raised K22,000. We hope sponsors can come on board and help us raise the funds, otherwise our team might be forced to come back home,” she said.
Mukumi said it would be expensive for the team to travel back to Zambia than proceeding directly to Windhoek after the tournament ends and bemoaned lack of assistance from the Ministry of Sports.