31 Aug 2016

The netball senior national team will this week compete in the Singapore 6 Nations Cup.

Countries that will compete at the tournament are hosts Singapore, Botswana, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Ireland and Canada.

The local girls went into camp on Sunday to prepare for the tournament and will leave for Singapore on September 1.

Interviewed about the trip, president of Botswana Netball Association (BONA), Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego stated that it was important for the team to go and compete there since it was a ranking tournament. 

She further said it gave the local team an opportunity of testing its strength against teams from beyond the African continent.

“Every year we play in the Africa Cup so we don’t have many opportunities to play with other countries that are outside Africa like Canada and Papua New Guinea, whose rankings are closer to our ranking,” Lebotse-Sebego said.

She said Africa had just a few countries like South Africa, Malawi and Uganda that were ranked, adding that playing against countries outside Africa would put Botswana in a very good position in terms of world rankings.

Botswana is ranked 19 in the world, Papua New Guinea is on position 15, Zambia at 16, Singapore 17, Canada at 18, while Ireland is ranked 25.

Another reason for participating in the Singapore 6 Nations Cup, she said, was to enhance their relationship with Netball Singapore.

“They are helping us to develop our players with their programmes of admitting our players to play in their netball league. 

Therefore, going there is an opportunity to continue with our rapport so that our girls can continue to play in the Singapore league,” she said. ENDS

The team consists of five BDF Cats players;Hilda Binang, Gosego Tsele, Ntebogang Motlakaloso, Tshegofatso Tlhabuswe and Gagotheko Tshelametsi. Other players are Tumisang Bagidi, Chedza Mashaba, and Olebogeng Kuriwa from Notwane, Boikanyo Selogetso and Katlego Dipatelelo from UB Crystals as well as the Tasc duo of Kgomotso Matibini and Oarabile Thapo.