AFRICA CUP-BOUND HOCKEY TEAMS CRY FOR HELP

THE Zambia Hockey Association has appealed to the corporate world to help raise funds needed to send to the two hockey teams to compete at the 2022 Africa Hockey Championships being used as qualifiers for the 2024 Oman Hockey World Cup qualifiers and are scheduled for next month in Egypt.

Zambia National Hockey women’s team manager Patson Kawewe confirmed that the association is looking for K800, 000 to send the men’s hockey team and the women’s teams for the hockey World Cup qualifiers to be held from December 10 to December 15, 2022 in Cairo, Egypt.

“The initial budget was K767, 000 but because it is the festive season and the air tickets have been hiked, we are now searching for K800, 000,” Kawewe said.

“We have two teams consisting of nine players each and these are teams that have always qualified among the top two teams whenever they competed at regional tournaments,” he said.

Asked how preparations were going, Kawewe said; “Preparations are progressing well. Both teams are looking forward to represent the country at the tournament in Egypt.

It is crucial because it is used as a qualifier for the World Cup that is why we are doing everything to ensure that the two teams travel to Egypt where they will be able to raise the country’s flag high.”

Earlier, Zambia National Hockey Men’s Head Coach Samuel Tagwireyi had unveiled a provisional 18-man squad for the 2024 Oman Hockey 5s World Cup qualifiers.

The squad comprises mostly of the players who represented Zambia at the 2014 and 2018 Youth Olympic Games which were hosted in Nanjing, China and Argentina respectively.

Women’s team coach Floyd Chomba has named a crack 15-member squad ahead of 2024 Hockey 5s qualifiers slated for Egypt next month.

Chomba retained relatively all the players he travleled with for the Africa Cup of Nations which was held in Ghana earlier this year but has summoned Chengelo Chungu, a pupil at Martin House who impressed for Team Zambia at the Hockey Schools tournament held in Zimbabwe in August.

The two teams will seek to finish among the top two teams at the tournament to qualify for the 2024 World Cup.