THE Zimbabwe senior women’s basketball team is in camp in preparation for a tournament in Mozambique where they have been invited for the country’s 40th Independence Day celebrations.
BY THANDIWE MOYO
Mozambique’s Independence Day is on June 25 and the tournament runs from that day to June 28 in Maputo.
South Africa and Kenya have also been invited.
Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (BUZ) technical president Sikhumbuzo Ndlovu said the invitational tournament would serve as a platform for the country to start building a team for 2017.
“This is a new team. We retained three of the players that were in the team that took part in the Afro-Basketball qualifiers.
This is an opening for us to build a team for 2017. The average age in the team is 22,” he said.
The three players that were retained from the Afro-Basketball qualifiers team are Sharon Chamwarura of Southern Mavericks, Dorcas Marondera of Vaal University in South Africa and University of Johannesburg Alumni’s Charity Chikumba.
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Ndlovu said they would bring in more players in the future, but the players in camp were being groomed for the next two years. Zimbabwe failed to qualify for Afro-Basket in the women’s category, but made it in the men’s side.
“This is our country’s future players. We want to reward players that are performing well. These are the players that will perform in future tournaments,” he said.
The players are under caretaker coach Emmanuel Mukandi who is a former national team basketball and rugby player. He is part of the Old Miltonians rugby technical team.
Ndlovu said Mozambique was strong in the girls team and hence they invited the ladies teams.
The team is made up of Judy Nyamakawo from FML Bullets in Harare, Lakers duo of Jacqueline Phenduka and Yolanda Matayataya, Raiders’ Francisca Sekete, Natalie Pike and who plays in South Africa, Stacey Weskoti and Sithabile Ngandini, both from Green Stars.
