Zimbabwe now ranked 15th best team in the world

ZIMBABWE moved one place up the ladder to 15th place on the latest International Netball Federation World rankings following their successful participation at the Namibia Pent Series this month.

The latest rankings released by the INF, based on matches played up to September 13, saw Zimbabwe moving from position 16 to 15.

Zimbabwe won all their four matches against Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Swaziland at the Series which was a world ranking competition.

Lloyd Makunde, who travelled with the team to Namibia as the head coach, was a delighted man.

“I am very elated, the players are happy after such an achievement. Hard work pays and we are going to work even harder to scale greater heights.

“If we manage to play teams ranked above us we are definitely going to move up the ladder. Top 10 is our aim, say in the next two years,” said Makunde.

Zimbabwe Netball Association president, Leticia Chipandu, said the future was promising for the discipline.

“We had one jump, I thought we would have done better but I was advised that other countries played more games than us.

“I think to us it means growth and it actually gives us more determination because of this we are more determined to get a single figure ranking.

“If we get more chances to play ranking games, we will do better,” Chipandu said.

The national association are already looking into the future with their focus on international competitions including the World Championships qualifiers next year.

“We are starting to prepare. Our first camp is in December to identify players and boosting our team. We have already been invited for the Namibia Pent Series in April next year.

‘‘We want to make sure we retain gold in Namibia also. We are preparing for the world qualifiers next year, so our holiday is going to be very busy.

“We identified a lot of talent during the National Youth Games, from the youths, the uniformed forces during the Games.

‘‘We have been invited to the Diamond Challenge (in South Africa) next year. So with these three competitions, the World Championships qualifiers, Pent Series and Diamond Challenge I think it will see us rise,” Chipandu said.

Australia maintained their position as the world’s number one.