No more Malawian netballers in world’s top-flight leagues

The world’s top netball leagues in England, New Zealand and Australia will for the first time in 13 years be played without a Malawian player following the retirement of England-based shooter Joyce Mvula. However, Malawi’s African rivals South Africa and Uganda continued to export their talents to the top-three leagues. South Africa has at least six players while Uganda has four.

At one point, Malawi had five exports in the top leagues, but players such as defenders Laureen Ngwira, Carol Mtukule-Ngwira and Towera Vinkhumbo- Nyirenda are no longer active while Australia-based shooter Mwawi Kumwenda-Mbwana will play in a second-tier league this year. While Malawi Queens’ trio Tendai Masamba, Melia Soko and Stella Matelezi will play in the Singapore’s Deloitte Netball Super League in March courtesy of United Kingdom athletes management firm Step Out 7 and Netball Singapore, but Singapore is ranked 24th in the world. The absence of Malawian players in the top leagues comes at a time Malawi is also dropping on the world netball rankings from five in 2012 to eight at present.

Former Malawi Queens players Annie Mopiha and Emmie Waya-Chongwe have attributed the significant drop in netball exports to lack of proper talent development in recent years. “For some time, we were operating without proper talent development structures, resulting in a few talented players coming through. With netball becoming more scientific and height being the yardstick for overseas clubs, it has not been easy for them to spot emerging talent from Malawi,” said Mopiha.

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She said Malawi netball needs to be restructured in a way that will see talent being produced and nurtured at various age stages. Said the former Malawi Queens captain: “There has been too much politics in netball since the time of former Netball Association of Malawi [NAM] president the late Rose Chinunda. Most netball stakeholders stopped working together.

A number of people with the ability of taking the game forward were thrown out of the system. This took off our focus on netball development.” “I have also noted that Mvula’s retirement is not only because of her concentration on family matters, but frustrations with the politics. We have to put the netball house back in order.” She added that lack of capacity building initiatives such as technical staff training is also to blame as up-and-coming netball talents are mostly trained by coaches or officials that do not have advanced technical abilities.

Waya-Chongwe also said the tendency of featuring players in unnatural positions in the national team spoils their chances of attracting overseas interest. NAM general secretary Yamikani Kauma said the association is aware of the situation and is working hard to restore foreign leagues’ trust in Malawian players. “It is for this reason that we have numerous connections with scouts, including, United Kingdom-based athletes agents Step Out 7, who have facilitated the attachment of Queens trio to the Singaporean top-flight league. The players will be exposed to top overseas leagues,” she said.

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