Coach Griffin Saenda has named battle-hardened campaigners in his Queens squad which flies to the United Kingdom today for the Netball World Cup to be staged in Liverpool from July 12 to 21.
With star player Mwawi Kumwenda ruled out due to injury, Saenda’s hopes are on UK-based duo of Joyce Mvula and Laureen Ngwira.
The coach said the technical panel had taken their time to name the best-of-the-best.
“We have picked players that performed well during training and we are confident that we will do well at the competition,” he said.
The coach said two UK-based stars Mvula and Ngwira will add depth to the squad.
“We have been monitoring their performance and we are assure that they are in top form as well,” he said.
The Queens face New Zealand, Barbados and Singapore in Group B.
Australia and Northern Ireland are in Group A which also has Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.
Top seeds Jamaica and South Africa are in Group C alongside Trinidad and Tobago and Fiji. England, Uganda, Scotland and Samoa are in Group D.
Malawi was also in the same group with New Zealand at the Australia Commonwealth Games where the Queens recorded their first victory over New Zealand, beating them 57-53.
International Netball Federation (INF) has introduced a complex format for the Netball World Cup.
In the new format, teams have to be at their best as they battle out in four round robin stages.
The preliminaries stage one will be played from July 12 to14 while the preliminaries stage two from July 15 to18.This is in contrast with the 2015 tournament format which although it had three stages, the preliminary stage was not subdivided into further two stages.
The Queens full squad is as follows:
Shooters: Joyce Mvula, Sindi Simtowe, Alinafe Kamwala and Jane Chimaliro
Attackers: Takondwa Lwazi, Brigdet Kumwenda and Thandie Galeta
Defenders: Loreen Ngwira, Towera Vinkhumbo, Carol Mtukule, Joana Kachilika and Grace Mwafulirwa.
