Veteran netball Coach Griffin Saenda Senior is today expected to make an emotional return to the sport as he takes charge of Kukoma Diamonds in their last league game against Thunder Queens at Blantyre Youth Centre.
\nSaenda has been on the sidelines for six months, following an illness that ruled him out of club and national team commitments.
\nThe coach confirmed that he will lead Diamonds\u2019 coaching panel as the team seeks to finish the Rainbow Paints Southern Region Netball League with a perfect record.
\n\u201cI am now back. Of course, for some weeks I have been helping [coach] the team temporarily but I am now in full control,\u201d he said. Saenda said he felt sad that during his absence, Diamonds surrendered two major trophies\u2014Presidential Cup and GOtv Netball Champions League.
\n\u201cIt was painful but I couldn\u2019t help because I was unwell. Now that I am feeling well, I want to help my side regain the lost glory this year.
\nTherefore, even though we have already defended the league, we need to preserve our unbeaten record,\u201d he said.
\nSaenda also said that he was frustrated by Malawi national netball teams\u2019 failure at Fast5 Netball World Series in Australia last October and in three test matches against England in November.
\nIn his absence, the Queens lost 10 successive games in all competitions.
\n\u201cI am not blaming anyone but it hurts when such things happen when we were supposed to be progressing,\u201d he said.
\nMeanwhile, Thunder Coach, Christina Mkwanda- Nsinji, has said they intend to spoil Diamonds\u2019 party.
\n\u201cThey have already won the league but we can spoil the mood if we beat them.
\nWe have to win so as to market ourselves to potential sponsors,\u201d she said.
\nDiamonds expect to welcome back goal-defender Towera Vinkhumbo-Nyirenda who was on maternity leave whereas Thunder have quality players such as centre Thandie Galeta and goal-shooter Chikumbutso Kaminjolo.
\nThe finale will be curtain raised by games involving Shizaella Queens and
\nChilomoni Sisters, with Serenity Stars playing against Prison Sisters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Veteran netball Coach Griffin Saenda Senior is today expected to make an emotional return to the sport as he takes charge of Kukoma Diamonds in their last league game against Thunder Queens at Blantyre Youth Centre. Saenda has been on the sidelines for six months, following an illness that ruled him out of club and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59334","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\/59334","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=59334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59341,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59334\/revisions\/59341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}