Editors PickNational Sports

Queens supporters to petition Sports Minister

 

A grouping calling itself Malawi National Netball Team Supporters Association wants says it will petition Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development over Malawi Queens’ recent poor performance.

The group’s concerns follow the Queens’ recent poor performance at Africa Netball Championship in Zambia where it lost to Zambi and Uganda and finished as runners-up.

According to the statement from the group, their main concerns are lack of funding to the team, poor netball infrastructure in the country and poor leadership at Netball Association of Malawi (NAM).

Queens in action against Botswana at Africa Netball Championship

The petitioners want government to build indoor netball courts which it promised—one in Blantyre and another in Lilongwe—to enable the Queens to host top countries.

“At the moment, we only wait for England and New Zealand to invite us,” reads the petition in part.

The petitioners have accused NAM officials of lacking passion for the sport and want only former netball players to run the association.

“Make it mandatory that the president of NAM should be a former netballer player as she will have the interest of the game at heart.

“Currently, people who are holding positions [at NAM] have no interest.  Our team’s performance is going down. Results from Africa Netball Championship say it all,” reads the statement from the petitioners.

The grouping has faulted NAM leadership for failing to organise friendly matches with neighbouring countries.

“If Zimbabwe netball team can travel to Zambia by road what stops the current NAM board members to organise friendly games with neighbouring countries?” reads the petition further.

So far, 98 people have already signed the petition on www.avaaz.org, an online campaigning website.

NAM official were not available for a comment but director of sports Jameson Ndalama said he was not aware of the petition.

“I can only comment after reading what is in the petition,” he said.

But Ndalama said government was already tackling funding and infrastructure concerns.

Related Articles

Back to top button