Namibian men’s team selected for Netball Africa Cup 

A Namibian men’s netball squad of 16 players has been selected for the Africa Cup which will be held in Swakopmund from 9 to 14 December. 

It will be the first time that a Namibian men’s team competes at the Africa Cup and they will have quite a drawback against most of the other nations where men’s netball is well established with running leagues and tournaments. 

Salomon Tuaire was appointed coach of the national men’s team after underlining his credentials in the MTC Namibia Women’s Premier League with Namibia Correctional Service, who won their third title in four years at the end of September. 

The national men’s team, however, will be a different proposition altogether, as Tuaire acknowledged at the trials on Saturday. 

“The other countries are far more advanced than us, they already have long running leagues which keep them active throughout the year while most of our guys just play for fun at parks,” he said. 

“So it’s going to be quite difficult for us, but we will just try to build men’s netball up, and in the future we hope to start a male league which will help us reach the level of the other countries,” he added. 

The trials itself also had its drawbacks according to Tuaire. 

“It did not go as expected because the communique was sent out quite late, and I think there were also transport and finance issues, so quite a few triallists could not make it which was a bit unfortunate. 

“But the trials went well – we started off slowly with some jitters because the players were a bit on their nerves, but their true potential soon started to show. There’s a lot of work to be done, and having to prepare in only two to three weeks is going to be quite tough, but we will do our best,” he said. 

Two of the teams that Namibia will face at the Africa Cup – South Africa and Zimbabwe – have been hard at work and over the weekend completed a three-match series in Johannesburg in preparation for the tournament. 

South Africa made a clean sweep but all the matches were highly competitive, with South Africa winning 51-36, 46-41 and 49-40. 

Tuaire said he didn’t want to make any predictions. 

“It’s too early to predict. Obviously we are the underdogs, but we will do our best not to disappoint and who knows, underdogs have also emerged victorious in the past, so let’s see what happens. We have selected a good squad and I think we can deliver some good results,” he said. 

The Namibian squad is as follows:

Valentino Tujendapi, Conzalez Louis, Inselly Oxurub, Bradley Geigub, Devian Goagoseb (all Otjozondjupa); Kotjii Kavari, Hannes von Wielligh, Nguvitjita Tjikungu and Zachary Philander (all Khomas); Rivaldo Omeb and Telwin Tjiuongua (Erongo); Suratiaan Khakisi (Hardap); Immanuel /Uirab (Kunene); Frank Makaya (Zambezi); Lorenzo Davids (//Kharas) and Leonard Somseb (Oshikoto).