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Lovemore Zigara in Gweru

THE Zimbabwe senior netball team goes into camp tomorrow to prepare for the Hong Kong tri-nation netball tournament next month.

Other teams scheduled to take part in the tournament that will run from March 16-19 are the hosts Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Letitia Chipandu, the Zimbabwe Netball Association (ZNA) president, told Chronicle Sport that the reigning African champions would want to use the tournament to improve their world rankings.

Zimbabwe is ranked 17th in the world.

“The girls are going into camp this Friday and this will run until March 13 before they depart for Hong Kong. We have made a provision for a long camping period because we want to prepare our girls adequately for the tournament since it’s on the International Netball Federation calendar,” said Chipandu.

“We want to do well at the tournament so that we accumulate points and improve our world rankings. We want to ensure that we do well at this tournament so that we can build on the success going forward because we have a number of international commitments this year.”

Meanwhile, Chipandu said this year’s Netball Super League season should start on the weekend of March 25-26.

This follows the holding of play-offs early this month, which confirmed the promotion of Zvishavane-based Midlands Platinum, Tomlinson Depot, Flow Angels and Dolphins into the topflight league.

Shurugwi’s Takashinga, who finished fifth, are on a bye and can be promoted should one of the teams in the league forfeit its franchise.

Chipandu, however, expressed disappointment at the absence of clubs from Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South from this year’s play-offs.

She said this defeats the association’s objectives of spreading the games around the country.

Bulawayo teams skipped the play-offs citing financial constraints and said they would concentrate on the provincial league.

– @lavuzigara1.