Makunde calls for talent identification
SENIOR national netball team coach Lloyd Makunde says their recognition at the Annual National Sports Awards last week is a challenge for them to aim higher and they should start laying the foundation now for the 2023 Netball World Cup in South Africa.
Makunde got the Coach of the Year gong for leading the Gems in their successful campaign at the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpoool, England, where they came eighth.
The Gems got the Team of the Year award and Makunde said it’s the recognition he was hoping for and the ball is in their court to remain on top of their game in the various tournaments they compete in with the bigger vision being a return to the global stage in 2023.
“I am ecstatic, the best I was hoping for. I lost it by a whisker last time (in 2018) and this time God guided me and the Gems to win these accolade. I can’t explain how happy I am but we did it, we just did it, netball has done it.
“It’s so much exciting as I said I can’t express the feeling I have. This is like heaven so I would want to again to say to all upcoming coaches or coaches that are there that perseverance pays. So they just mustn’t look back they just keep going until they achieve something.
“It means we have to work even harder like this year, so that we will be back again on the podium in the next event. It means a lot but me I see it as a platform whereby we need to maintain this so we need to work hard again this year so that next awards we will also be competing here for the accolades,” said Makunde.
Some of the events lined up for this year include the Pent Series and Africa Cup.
Makunde says the way to go if they are to keep the bar high, is to spread their wings to all corners of the country in search of talented tall players, which was one of their shortcomings at the world showpiece in Liverpool in July last year.
“I would recommend that we start like now. We need to start working out, looking out for talent even in the rural areas, so that we come up with the best possible tall players.
“Tall players have got much advantage, we saw it in England. So we need to identify good talent, tall players but with good talent so that by
2022 at the qualifiers (for the World Cup) we would have worked hard, so that we qualify easily,” Makunde said.
Apart from the playing team, the Zimbabwe Netball Association took about eight players to the tournament in Liverpool as part of their development programme and will be hoping to build on some of those players for the future.
The Under-21 side will be out competing in the 2021 Netball Youth World Cup qualifiers this year and qualification will see them making their second appearance at the pinnacle event for emerging players to be hosted by Fiji.
This also presents a good platform for the senior national team technical department in their search for talent for their longterm development plans.