HAZ names squads for Indoor Africa Cup

THE Hockey Association of Zimbabwe have announced the men and women’s squads expected to represent the country at the forthcoming Indoor Africa Cup scheduled for June in Swakopmund, Namibia. The tournament is slated for June 23 to 25. The national association’s president, Grant Campbell, said preparations for the event will begin soon with the final teams set to be in place by the end of April.

“What we have done, we have chosen two squads… and then that will be narrowed down at the end of April to the actual final teams. So they will be doing some training sessions going forward.

“Being indoor, we use the Sunrise Sports Club facility, that’s where the league is played in Harare and obviously in Bulawayo, when they start, they are going to use the Trade Fair premises.

''So the coaches will be getting squads up to do training,” Campbell said.

Indications are that Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe are the countries likely to compete.

Campbell said they are looking at raising funds for the teams’ participation and is hopeful they will be able to send both men and women's sides.

“The countries that will be participating as far as we know at the moment are Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. And obviously our participation is relying on finances, so we now going to try and get some money together to send the two teams.

“We are going to raise the money to go to Namibia. We have selected the team, now that we have got the team and management, we are now going to try and get the budget and see how much it will cost us.

''Our intention is to send both teams if we can pull it all with the money,” said Campbell.

The men’s side will be under the guidance of Eddie Chiringa while Chris Fourie takes charge of the women’s team.

Last year the local hockey's motherbody successfully embarked on a fund-raising programme together with their various stakeholders for the Under-21 women’s participation at the Junior World Cup in Chile.