By GRACE CHAIILE –
ZAMBIA has grouped with highly ranked Fiji and Wales in Pool D at the Sydney 2015 World Netball Championship slated for August 7-16 in Australia.
Ranked 18 in the world, Zambia will have to compete with Fiji and Wales, who are ranked seventh and eighth respectively, to advance to the next round in a group that also has 13th ranked Uganda.
Zambia, who last competed at this level in 1999, qualified after finishing second behind Uganda at the Africa Netball Championship qualifiers held in Botswana to join already qualified South Africa and Malawi.
National team coach Pauline Nsombwe described the draw as tough but that Zambia has to be adequately prepared to beat the likes of Fiji and Wales to advance to the next stage.
Nsombwe said Fiji and Wales are countries that have been to the World Cup several times and boast of experience as compared to a Zambian side that will be making a second appearance.
“We have been drawn in a tough group but I am positive that with adequate preparations, the team is capable of going beyond the group stage. Fiji and Wales may have the experience but they don’t have a clue of how Zambia plays. Uganda is not an issue to us though they narrowly managed to beat us at the Africa Championship,” she said.
Nsombwe said the team will begin preparations for both the Africa and World Cup Championships next month and that she will beef up the squad ahead of the competitions.
Netball Association of Zambia (NAZ) general secretary Pritchard Ngoma said some friendly games will be organised to enable the prepare well for the outing and appealed to the corporate world to come on board and help with logistics.
Pool A has hosts Australia, New Zealand, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago with Pool B having England, Jamaica, Scotland and Samoa while Malawi, South Africa, Singapore and Sri Lanka are in Pool C.