National teams face council assessment

Malawi National Council of Sports will today begin assessing national teams’ performance in various international competitions between January and June this year.

The two-day exercise, to be held in Lilongwe, is aimed at evaluating the performance of the teams, identifying challenges they encountered and mapping out strategies for improved results in future competitions.

Ntulumbwa: It provides a platform to reflect. | Nation

Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said in an interview yesterday that the assessments will provide a platform for national sports associations to reflect on their performances and discuss areas requiring improvement.

“The objective of the meeting is to engage the associations in discussions on the performance of national teams in international competitions and to identify areas for improvement,” he said.

According to the schedule released by the council, today’s sessions will feature presentations by Athletics Malawi, Judo Association of Malawi and the Handball Association of Malawi from 9am to noon.

Netball Association of Malawi and the Karate Federation of Malawi will make their presentations in the afternoon.

On Friday, it will be the turn of Football Association of Malawi (FAM), Cricket Malawi and the Darts Association of Malawi in the morning while Volleyball Association of Malawi and the Boxing Federation of Malawi will conclude the exercise in the afternoon.

Ntulumbwa said the review meetings are expected to generate recommendations that will help improve Malawi’s competitiveness on the international stage.

He said: “The meeting will provide an opportunity for the associations to present assessments of their teams’ performances, discuss challenges encountered, share lessons learned from recent competitions and propose strategies for improving future international results.”

In an interview, FAM operations director Gomezgani Zakazaka welcomed the initiative, saying it will give sports associations an opportunity to discuss challenges affecting the performance of national teams.

During the period under review, the Flames participated in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers and Four Nations Tournament in Botswana and also played two international friendly matches against Ethiopia.

The Scorchers, on the other hand, competed in the 2025 Cosafa Women Cup in South Africa, Fifa Women’s Series and played two international friendly matches against Tanzania.

The Malawi Queens did not participate in any competition while the Under-21 national netball team were guests at South Africa’s Telkom Netball League in April.

In cricket, Malawi men’s national team competed in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup qualification in Ghana in March while the women’s team participated in the annual Kwibuka Cup in Kigali, Rwanda, this month.

The Women’s under-19 also participated in the ICC Under-18 Women’s T2 tournament in Rwanda in March.

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