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Ellina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
ZIMBABWE Netball Association president Leticia Chipandu says they are confident of better fortunes this year when they battle it out in the World Cup qualifiers.

The global event will see the world’s top 16 teams fighting for honours next year in England.

While in some parts of the world they have already had their qualifiers, African countries are set to meet in August for the qualifying event at a venue to be announced.

For Zimbabwe, the qualifiers are their biggest event for the year and Chipandu said after missing the last edition in 2015 by a whisker, they were looking forward to a fruitful campaign this time around.

“We have competed in the World Cup qualifiers before. The last time when Australia hosted in 2015, we missed by just a point, so (for) these qualifiers, we are very positive we will qualify because our senior team’s level of play has risen.

“We are very confident we will make the grade because we have the talent. If we just prepare well, I don’t see why we should not qualify,” Chipandu said.

The 16 teams will be selected through both the International Netball Federation world rankings and regional qualifying tournaments.

Six teams will qualify automatically for the World Cup – the host nation England and the top five teams by INF world rankings, as of July 1, 2018.

Africa are likely to have South Africa and Malawi qualifying automatically as they are among the top ranked countries and there are two slots for the continent that will be determined through the qualifying tournament.

The final list of the 16 teams will be confirmed in September.

Last year Zimbabwe came third at the African Championships behind winners Uganda and Malawi.

In the event South Africa and Malawi automatically qualify for the global showpiece, Zimbabwe stand a good chance of fighting for one of the slots to the event.

The senior side are already focused on the forthcoming qualifiers as they took their first step towards their preparatory work last year when they had a two-week camp in December with more than 20 players in attendance.

“We camped for two weeks, I think with about 26 players and out of those 26 we will pick 14. We are also hoping to get our international player Joyce Ngwarai back, she is playing in Australia.

“She is one of the best shooters. We have spoken to her and we just hope her programme won’t clash with the qualifiers. We need her for the qualifiers,” said Chipandu.

Before they go for the qualifiers in August, Zimbabwe are set to return to Namibia again this year for the Pent Series in April.

The senior team will be hoping to emulate the Under-21s who made their maiden appearance at the World Netball Youth Cup last year in Botswana after booking their place at the event in 2016 during the African qualifiers.

The ZINA president said the series will be part of the preparations to the World Cup qualifiers.

“ZINA expectations are that we are going to have an improved marketing of the sport. I think it’s about taking the sport to the people, for people to watch netball, to hear about netball be it on radio so that they start to follow and appreciate the sport.

“I think that should be able to attract reasonable sponsorship,” Chipandu said.