Malawi Netball Queens\u2019 hopes of lifting the Africa Netball Championship and qualifying for the 2018 Commonwealth Games have suffered a huge setback following the absence of three key defenders.<\/p>\n
It is likely that Malawi will be without skipper Caroline Mtukule-Ngwira, vice captains Grace Mwaful i rwa-Mhango and Towera Vinkhumbo- Nyirenda.<\/p>\n
Ngwira was on maternity leave and she is battling for match fitness whereas Vinkhumbo-Nyirenda did not report for camp following reports that she is also on maternity break.<\/p>\n
Mhango withdrew from the squad because she has secured a new job.<\/p>\n
It means that Thunder Queens\u2019 Joanna Kachilika is the only experienced defender in the squad. The likes of Colleta Mwalilino, Brenda Lwanda (Civonets), Juliet Sambo [Blue Eagles Sisters], Wezzie Mzemba- Msiska, Beauty Basiyano, Catherine Yikwanga (Tigresses) and Martha Dambo (Thunder Queens) are inexperienced.<\/p>\n
Another player, Lauren Ngwira, who can play in attack and defence, has been sent back for reporting late for training without a valid reason.<\/p>\n
Sources said Ngwira trained with the team on Tuesday but she was sent back in the evening.<\/p>\n
Ngwira has been inactive for a year and it was a gamble including her in the squad.<\/p>\n
However, Queens Coach, Griffin Saenda, could not be drawn into commenting about Ngwira\u2019s expulsion.<\/p>\n
Saenda said if players fail to report for camp training by this weekend, the technical panel will concentrate on the current squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a national duty and everyone is supposed to respond and be happy about it. Some players gave excuses which we felt were genuine but others gave us lame excuses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Already Malawi will be without Australia-based shooter Mwawi Kumwenda of Melbourne Vixens and Tigresses\u2019 reliable shooter, Sindie Simtowe-Msowoya, who is also on maternity break.<\/p>\n
Blue Eagles Sisters centre, Takondwa Lwazi, also withdrew from the squad as she is busy with preparations for her wedding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malawi Netball Queens\u2019 hopes of lifting the Africa Netball Championship and qualifying for the 2018 Commonwealth Games have suffered a huge setback following the absence of three key defenders. It is likely that Malawi will be without skipper Caroline Mtukule-Ngwira, vice captains Grace Mwaful i rwa-Mhango and Towera Vinkhumbo- Nyirenda. Ngwira was on maternity leave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47628,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47619\/revisions\/47628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}