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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE Cestoball Association president, Amon Madzvamuse, says they are putting in place mechanisms that will ensure their participation at the World Cup later in the year.

The global event is scheduled for October 19 to 22 in Bangkok, Thailand, with male and female teams competing.

Zimbabwe are set to participate at the event by virtue of being one of the first African countries that have the sport.

Madzvamuse said there are events lined-up for 2022 that will present their technical team with a platform for selection of players to make up the national teams. “Definitely we have great plans to make this World Cup debut a success. We have teams that are going to feed us with more players for selection and we hope to get more from schools again as the age-group starts from 18 years and above.

“We have schools such as Samuel Centenary, Christ Ministries, Churchill, Allan Wilson and Rufaro High in Masvingo where we are drawing our players from.

“We have events leading to selection of players such as the first presidential tournament to be held at the end of March at Samuel Centenary School, our home of cestoball,” said Madzvamuse. Cestoball was introduced in Zimbabwe two years ago and is still relatively new in the country. It is a team sport with similarities to netball and it originated in Argentina, in the late 19th century. Madzvamuse said they are going to field both men’s and women’s teams at the event since they want to promote equality.

“As per the invitation, this is what we are going to do, for we want to give an opportunity to both genders.

“It is very important for Zimbabwe to participate in this first of its kind World Cup and this will take us into the record books of cestoball as the first African (country) to have cestoball and participate in its first World Cup and more opportunities will come our way,” said Madzvamuse.

Besides the competition, there are training programmes for players, coaches and referees expected to take place during the World Cup.

And Madzvamuse believes it’s an opportunity they should utilise since they are still trying to establish the sport countrywide.

“We are going to have referees and coaches trained alongside the World Cup competition and our mixing and mingling gives friendship with other developed cestoball countries, which will yield exchange programmes for our juniors and Zimbabwe as a country,” said Madzvamuse, who is the former president of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation.