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Collin Matiza Sports Editor
THE Zimbabwe Squash Academy Trust have named their final 13-member team for their proposed historic tour of Hamburg, Germany, in April.

Based at Belgravia Sports Club in Harare, the Zimbabwe Squash Academy Trust are preparing for their maiden trip to Germany from April 7 to 24 where they will be hosted by the Hamburg Squash Academy (Squash Verband Schleswig-Holstein e.V.) as part of a sporting and cultural exchange programme.

During their three-week stay in Hamburg, the team, which will be the first squash side from this part of the world to tour Germany, will play in a number of international junior tournaments as well as attend a training camp which will be run by the Hamburg Squash Association.

And yesterday, one of the academy’s coaches, Talent Mushunje, who will travel to Germany as the team manager, named a 13-member squad of 10 boys and three girls for this maiden tour of the European country.

Kuziva Mdungwe, Ryan Gwidzima, Roy Jambo, Tafadzwa Mushunje, Innocent Mukumba, Rukudzo Midzi, Nishyto Munyoro, Covermore Mutata, Chrispen Chimboora and Tendekai Haparimwi are the 10 boys who have been picked to represent the academy in Hamburg.

One of the country’s most promising female squash players Polite Mubure, her sister Yvonne and Kuziva Madungwe will form the girls team for this tour.

The 13 players will be accompanied to Hamburg by team manager Talent Mushunje and coach Malvin Mubure.

And Talent Mushunje yesterday said preparations for their trip to Germany were at an advanced stage and he hoped that it will help the selected players to hone their skills during their three-week stay there.

“The whole group is just excited about the prospect of touring Germany for the first time in their fledgling careers and playing in the proposed tournaments will give them the much-needed international exposure which I think will help them turn into fully-fledged professional squash players in the future.

“This is a group of young, talented players who have won a number of junior titles at different age-groups here in Zimbabwe and in South Africa and I’m quite convinced that they will represent both our academy and Zimbabwean squash in general with dignity during their stay in Germany,” Talent Mushunje said.

Mashumba Mukumba, one of the founder members and director of the Zimbabwe Squash Academy Trust, also said their proposed tour of Germany in April will go a long way in opening up avenues that will see more players from their academy being invited to play in more international junior tournaments overseas.

“Our main aim is to establish ourselves as one of the best and biggest squash academies in Africa and our partnership with the Hamburg Squash Association is another giant step in our quest or aim to produce world-class squash players from Zimbabwe,” Mashumba Mukumba recently said.

He, however, said they were looking at raising more than $20 000 that will go towards the team’s airfares to Germany as well as meeting other expenses that they will incur during their three-week stay in the European country in April.

“We are just hoping that a number of well-wishers will come on board in our fund-raising drive so that our kids won’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them to play squash at the highest level in a country like Germany,” Mashumba Mukumba said.