Malawi given U-21 WC lifeline

Malawi has been given a lifeline to be part of next year’s World Youth Netball Championship in Scotland.

Initially, The Junior Queens were omitted from the championship after Netball Association of Malawi’s (NAM) failed to meet the March registration fee deadline.

But during last week’s International Federation of Netball Associations (Ifna) meeting in New Zealand, Malawi managed to plead with the global body to consider the Junior Queens’ participation in the tournament despite missing the deadline.

“We failed to meet the deadline because of lack of forex at that time. We are committed to taking part in all top events and it was not deliberate or negligence that we missed the registration deadline.

“They [Ifna] understood our case and felt it was unfair for a team that is in top five on world rankings to miss out on the tournament and have told us to make part payment.

“The payment is for accommodation for our team. We are discussing with government that we should make that payment,” said NAM president Rosy Chinunda.

NAM needs more than K6 million (about $20 000) for accommodation for its delegation for the 10-day event.

“We need to pay about K1 million (about $3 333)  roughly as a commitment,” said Chinunda.

Principal Secretary II in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Justin Saidi confirmed talking to NAM on the issue.

“As government we will do all we can to ensure that Malawi participate at the tournament. We are committed to supporting all netball programmes just like football, so we will try to work out something with NAM,” said Saidi on Thurday.

Malawi’s failure to take part can be suicidal as the tournament has proved to be a vital platform of developing young talent for the senior side.

The Junior Queens took part in the last edition in 2009 in Cook Island where the country saw the emergence of a new generation of top class players.

Malawi’s top shooter Mwawi Kumwenda, who now plays in Australia, as well as Sindi Simtowe, Bridget Kumwenda, Lorraine Ngwira and Towera Vinkhumbo were part of the 2009 team that finished fifth out of 20 countries.

Kumwenda also won the player of the tournament as well as the top shooter award.