African teams on the rise
IT’S saying something when South Africa are bound for the World Cup semi-finals and Jamaica are not.
The Sunshine Girls’ loss to England, which spells almost certain failure to miss out of the tournament’s knockout stage for the first time since 1995, isn’t just a story about the downfall of the world’s secondranked country.
It’s also a tale of another’s rise.
Because when the SPAR Proteas upset Jamaica 55-52 on Sunday – just as they did England in January’s Quad series – Norma Plummer’s fifthranked side announced themselves as a bona fide global heavyweight.
Beat Uganda today and they’ll secure a last-four spot, likely against either Australia or New Zealand.
And while it’s unlikely any other African teams will progress that far, there’s a real sense the continent is the sport’s real sleeping giant.
Currently there are three African countries in the world’s top 10 in South Africa, Uganda (sixth) and Malawi (ninth).
But 13th-ranked World Cup debutants Zimbabwe edged eighth-ranked Northern Ireland on Sunday and even ruffled a few Australian feathers despite Saturday’s loss to the defending champions.
Zambia is two spots adrift at world No.15.
“If they get systems and daily training environments and resources that we had they’d be amazing,” Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander said.
“Norma Plummer has implemented changes in South Africa and she’s only just tipped the top of the iceberg.
“She knows that they’ve got the talent over there.
“I’ve seen it too. I’ve been to Namibia and observed up the close the talent that there is in Africa.
“If they get a system in place like Australia, New Zealand and England have they should be dominating in a few years.”
Uganda, affectionately known as the She Cranes, qualified for the 2015 World Cup via the 2014 Africa Netball Championship in Botswana on a reported tournament budget of 600,000 Ugandan Shillings ($A230) and were short on bottled water for games.
Though the government gave the team a significant funding boost for the Sydney tournament, the players took matters into their own hands, planning a car wash to cover travel logistics that was cancelled at the last minute due to its apparent potential to humiliate the government.
This time around it was Zimbabwe that was forced to resort to a crowd-funding campaign from within the country and the diaspora just to get them to Liverpool.
South Africa are looking forward to hosting the 2023 tournament in Cape Town partly because it means resources can be diverted directly to athlete development instead of travel.
In Liverpool, Plummer can expect her expectations to be met.
“If we can crack the top four at the World Champs, that would be a massive bonus,” Plummer said.