Her excellency Mrs. Stella Ndau who is the Malawian ambassador to South Africa has urged the Malawi National Netball team, the Queens, to make the country proud when they represent 18.5million Malawians at the 2023 Vitality netball world cup in Cape Town, South Africa.
The ambassador made the remarks today as she had a courtesy call with the Queens at Stay Easy hotel in Cape Town ahead of their opening match against Scotland today evening
‘’ We came here to assure them that His excellency the President of Malawi Dr. Lazarus Chakwera is behind them and that the whole Malawi is behind them, so we needed to give them morale and to encourage them that we will be fighting together,’’ explained Ndau.
Speaking during the courtesy call Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) Board Chairperson Dr. Sunduzwayo Madise asked the players to forget issues to do with allowances and concentrate on making the country proud with impressive performances
‘’ Do not worry about allowances that issue will be sorted before the world cup ends. We want you to go out there and show the world what you are capable of, know that we are all behind you because we believe in you. Do not fear any team because you are better than them. As Council we will settle the issues of allowance, and also you have complained about the food, we will see how best we can handle that. I challenge you to win the world cup,’’ explained Madise
On her part Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) President Abigel Sherrif explained that the morale in the team is high the only challenge is the food as there is no nsima
‘’We played with Fiji and New Zealand and the performances were very encouraging, the way we played against New Zealand shows how hungry the girls are to do better. The only thing we are worried is the food, we wish there was nsima here because the food we are eating is not good,’’ explained Sherrif.
The Queens will open their campaign against Scotland tonight at 9:00pm. So far, some teams have already started their games. Uganda beat Singapore 79-37, Australia beat Zimbabwe 86-30, Tonga beat Fiji 56-51 and New Zealand beat Trinidad and Tobago 76-27.