The Zimbabwe’s senior women basketball team left for Mozambique to participate at an invitational tournament for the country’s 40th Independence Day celebrations. The team was in camp for the past week ahead of the tourney.
Mozambique’s Independence Day is on the 25th June and the tournament will run from Thursday 25 June up to Sunday 28 June in Maputo.
Kenya and South Africa are amongst the southern African countries who have also been invited to the prestigious tournament.
In an interview with 263Chat earlier this week Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (BUZ) Technical President Sikhumbuzo Ndlovu confirmed the invitational tournament and revealed that it would serve as a platform for the country to start building 2017.
“Considering that the average age in the team is 22, so this is an opening for us to build a team for 2017. These are our future players and we want to reward those that are performing well. These are the players that will perform in the future tournaments.
“We only retained three players that were in the team that took part in the Afro-Basketball qualifiers, so basically this is a new team,” he said.
The three players that were retained from the Afro-Basketball qualifiers team are Sharon Chamwarura from Southern Mavericks, Dorcas Marondera of Vaal University in South Africa and University of Johannesburg Alumni’s Charity Chikumba.
Zimbabwe failed to qualify for the Afro-Basketball in the women’s category, but made it in the men’s category and Ndlovu is willing to bring in more players in the future. He revealed that the players need to be groomed for future tournaments.
The team is under the caretaker coach Emamanuel Mukando who is a former national team basketball and rugby player and he also part of the Old Miltonians rugby technical team.
Senior Women Basketball squad
Judy Nyamakawo (FML Bullets in Harare), Jacqueline Phenduka and Yolanda Matayataya (Lakers), Francisa Sekete (Raiders), Natalie Pike (plays in South Africa), Stacey Weskoti and Sithabile Ngandini (Green stars), Sharon Chanwarura (Southern Mavericks, South Africa), Dorcas Marondera (Vaal University, South Africa), Charity Chikumba (University of Jorhannesburg Alumni, South Africa).
