Netball returns
As senior national team competes in Africa Cup
The Botswana Senior Ladies National Team is set to be part of Africa Netball Cup which will be held in Namibia on the 9th - 16th November 2021.
The team hasn’t been active for a period of three years now and the resurgent Botswana Netball Association ( BONA) is working around the clock to ready the team for the games.
Since Netball hasn’t been played since 2019 at both club and national team level, Bona has announced a national team selections camp, which is expected to be held on October 16, to select players who will represent the nation.
The selections for the National team will be held on the 16th October 2021 from 0800 hours at BONA Courts in Gaborone.
“Training for the selected players will start with a weekend training on the 22nd - 24th October 2021. Final training camp will be on the 28th October - 6th November 2021,” BONA spokesperson Mokeresete Mokeresete said in an interview this week.
“We are going through the selection process, the technical team agreed that players who showed great potential in 2019 and going backwards, they should be called up to the training camp and the coaches will select from them.”
Mokeresete further said currently they are trying to prepare for the Africa Netball World
Cup qualifiers, so that they can book a spot in the 2023 World Cup to be hosted in South Africa, ” we are currently ranked number 27 and we want to improve our rankings. We also want to have a solid team in Namibia with the potential to qualify for the 2023 World Cup.”
The optimistic Mokeresete added that it’s possible for the team to win the tournament or at least finish in the top 3 to improve the rankings. “Right now we haven’t competed on
an international stage, we want our players to have that exposure for the coming two years so that they are sharp and are able to compete,” he said.
The Technical Team is made up of Head Coach, Sithulile Mlotshwa who is assisted by Coach Neo Ntwaagae and Team Manager is Malebogo Mophalane. BONA has trusted the ladies to drive the team forward and produce instant results within a short space of time, with adequate resources provided to them.