Windhoek
In a shocking revelation, Netball Namibia announced that the week-long Africa Netball Championships, which were to take place in Namibia on the 27th of this month, have now been shifted to neighbouring Botswana.
The decision came after Namibia pulled out as the host nation while the country will also be a notable absente e at the continental championships after negotiations with the country’s sports presiding body, the National Sports Commission (NSC), reached a deadlock.
In the meantime, it has emerged that Netball Namibia will now channel all its energy towards the building the game locally where it plans to put tangible regional structures in place aimed at strengthening the senior national team for future international and regional participation.
Though details are sketchy over Namibia’s last-minute shocking pull out, the dominant view is that sports authorities were not keen to sanction a haphazardly assembled squad to represent the country at such an august event. Insiders informed New Era Sport that the commission sought clarity on the selection process and had serious reservations on whether proper mechanism were followed to create a transparent platform and process for holding national trials.
Namibian netball has taken a slippery slope journey in recent years despite numerous efforts by sports authorities to revive the ailing fortunes of the once much-adored ladies’ game.
Experts blame the seemingly unending squabbles in the leadership in the domestic game as the major stumbling block.
Clearly fed up with ongoing circus in domestic netball, retired netballers are calling for the immediate establishment of proper league structures in all netball-playing regions.
In addition, they are vigorously advocating for the reintroduction of the highly competitive annual national netball championships that used to draw large crowds in various towns attracting teams from all corners of the country.