ACCEPTABLY, team transitioning is evidently one difficult process as can be seen by the Chipolopolo struggling to live up to the dizzy heights they reached in winning the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 2012.
After 2012, there has been little or nothing exciting to write about the senior national football team.
The Chipolopolo exited AFCON title defence crusade at Group Stage, the story was the same two years later and had also surrendered the COSAFA Cup title without putting up a decent fight.
So when we hear the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) telling the players, especially the locals, to prove their worth and show why they are at the national team, we get excited because it is clear they are sharing the concerns of the many fans who are worried about the prospects of the current crop of players.
Can they go on to win any major trophy? Reality says chances are bleak.
This current team on locals just has to step up their game and start proving to the fans that Zambia is still a regional powerhouse.
The bandwidth of foreign based players is pretty thin and the locals will need to fill-in but they have not been stepping up as required.
Just recently, Zambia was beaten 3-0 by Egypt and this was attributed to the lack of concentration, lost 3-0 to DR Congo and it was on a day they played well with these results sandwiching a win and a draw against Mozambique. So when is the consistency of good results going to kick in?
Not just talking about the 3-0 losses to the DR Congo in the
Four-Nation tournament commemorating Angola’s 40 years of Independence and to Egypt, but the last three years have been less than impressive.
Coming to this crop of under-23, they have been among of the least achieving at lower age-group teams as they at under-17 and at under-20 failed to make the African championships, could not even get the COSAFA under-20.
Fortunately, they made the Africa Under-23 Championships but they had fluffed on the road to the All-Africa Games which is an under-23 tournament.
We shall be watching the Africa Under-23 tournament with baited breath hoping the make the Olympics.
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So FAZ has cut ties with the national team dressers Nike.
Fine! Contracts end, contracts get terminated, parties split on mutual consent  and people move on but the manner that FAZ opted to announce the ending of the Nike deal leaves much to be desired.
There was no official statement, no reasons, no dates, and no clear mention on who moves in next.
Quite right it was a deal between FAZ and Nike and not with the media, but the bigger player in this whole game are the fans who deserve to be communicated to officially and at the right time.
With no information, people are bound to speculate as an online magazine did by saying FAZ has had no kit sponsors for more than a year and that the Chipolopolo travels with Nike gear but carrying Umbro and Adidas accessories.
And since there is still little information, I will speculate that the deal ended last year but I am wondering where that container of kit dropped off at FAZ labelled Nike two months ago came from. For comments email me at shamsmuzo@gmail.com