Dinaledi on the brink of history
The senior women’s national netball team, Dinaledi is on the verge of history of winning the Four Nations Cup for the first time since 2008.
The Nations Cup is the biggest annual netball tournament in Singapore. It was first held in 2006 and the event has returned in 2022 after a two-year hiatus. Dinaledi went in to the tournament on the back of the disappointment of failing to qualify for next year’s Netball World Cup. Four teams Botswana, Fiji, Ireland, Malaysia and Singapore are competing in the tournament that ends tomorrow. Botswana started the competition by walloping Fiji 60-43. In the second game, Botswana beat the Singapore ‘A’ 50-31. Dinaledi continued their dominance beating Singapore 71-21. It was another walk in the park for Dinaledi as they beat Malaysia 67-38 in a match played on Wednesday.
The national team coach, Jenny van Dyk said she was impressed by the team’s performance and the good run has not come as a surprise.
“I believe that we have great talent and capabilities within the Botswana team. The more opportunities offered to them, the better they will become.
We might be the lowest in terms of rankings in the Nations Cup, a lot of it has to do with the fact that we do not play enough in national matches which messes up rankings a little bit,” she said. Van Dyk said they have an important match against Ireland today (Friday) and if they win it they qualify for the final where they might play Fiji.
“Playing Fiji for the second time will be easy and we will give it our best shot. The most important lesson we learnt is to trust and back ourselves a little bit more because if we do that the unit can do wonders.
The second thing is that merely arriving at the games and being there is not enough for us to play the netball we want to. We need to be proactive and take action on court,” she said.
Van Dyk said she has leant a lot about the players and that gives her options to make changes at the right time for the right reasons.
Botswana Netball Association (BONA), Mokeresete Mokeresete said Dinaledi were unstoppable.
“Our team is having an exceptional tournament. Looking at the performance of the team so far it definitely promises that we are now destined to win the Nations Cup for the first time,” he said.
The team travelled to Singapore a few days after the Lucara Netball Tournament. Mokeresete said the netball league gave the players the much-needed game time that assisted them to be physically, tactically and mentally fit.
“Moreover, this year we had an active year on the court since January. There was return to play mini league, fast five tournament and the national league. You would remember as well that this team was part of the Netball World Cup qualifiers. They have reached the peak,” he said.
Mokeresete said the association has worked hard this year ensuring that the players fully return back to play in order to be fully active throughout the year. He said the results are showing off on the court in international competitions.
He said the coming of van Dyk has brought a lot of changes and self belief within the squad.