50 days to African World Cup

Netball South Africa president, Cecilia Molokwane says all is set for the Vitality Netball World Cup as the countdown reaches 50 days to go. The Cape Town International Convention Centre is the venue for this global showpiece which will be played for the first time on African soil.

The World Cup fever is reaching boiling point with the countrywide trophy tour which concludes in Mpumalanga today and heading to the fourth province, Free State from Friday. The trophy landed in South Africa on Africa Day and KwaZulu Natal Netball was the first to host the trophy and Gauteng was the second before Mpumalanga took over. Limpopo, North West, Free State, Northern Cape, and Eastern Cape are the next provinces to have the tour before the trophy heads down to the Western Cape ahead of the competition.

The tournament is scheduled to take place from 28 July to 6 August and will see teams divided into four groups. Norma Plummer’s side is drawn in Group C with Jamaica, Wales, and Sri Lanka. There are 60 matches played throughout the competition. Plummer and her chargers will be hoping to replicate their 2019 form where they finished in the top four of the competition.

Molokwane says it is important to make South Africans experience the trophy in order to bring them closer to the World Cup but also to the sport as well especially since all of the Protea match tickets have already been sold out.

“I don’t think there is anything that is left on the operations side (to be completed). The only thing that is left is for the South Africans to support the Spar Proteas, to give them those beautiful messages, to encourage them, and to tell them that they are there with them in spirit. What we need right now is for every South African to rally behind the Spar Proteas. We are going around with the trophy and we are seeing a lot of people supporting the team. People are now aware that the World Cup is here. That is one awareness campaign that we are doing even though it was not meant to be one, we were just taking the trophy to the people so they can take pictures with it. So that they can have lasting memories of it (World Cup) but we are happy with how things are going so far. When we end in Cape Town, I think it will be a buzz,” says Molokwane.

Africa will be represented by South Africa, Uganda, Malawi, and Zimbabwe in the competition. The former Limpopo Baobabs coach explains that the plan was to have the trophy tour held around the continent in order to show support for the tournament however no other country took interest in hosting the tour.

“There were plans of the trophy tour (in the other three countries in the tournament). We wrote to them but unfortunately, we didn’t get a positive response. So we continued with our tour. We wrote to Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda, and other countries to say anybody that wants us to come, we’ll bring the trophy and all is on them but we didn’t get a response,” she says.

Over the last few there has been an increase in the amount of support netball and the Proteas have been getting and since the national Department of Sports official launch of Netball Fridays there seem to be more people showing interest in the sport. This includes the number of sponsors, such as Discovery, who have shown a commitment to the NSA. Molokwane says keeping the new and old supporters informed about all that is netball will keep them interested and rallying behind the sport.

“We should improve on our side, and the side of the media to have a publication that goes out every week (about netball) because if people don’t know what happens in the background they will never know what is happening in the sport. We are working closely with the media but I think we should do more because they are the people who can expose us more than anyone. We (have to) keep the sport going, we play netball every time, and at every opportunity we get, we must talk about it. We must make sure that people know that they must come and support us,” she says.