Desert Jewels aim to come full circle

**Namibia’s national netball team, the Desert Jewels left for the Africa Netball Cup in Nairobi yesterday with high hopes of qualifying for the Netball World Cup for the first time in 35 years. **

The last (and only) time the Desert Jewels qualified for the global showpiece was in 1991 when it was held in Sydney, and Namibia will now hope to come full circle when the world cup returns to the iconic Australian port city next year.

With Africa’s top two teams, South Africa (first in Africa and fifth in the world) and Uganda (second in Africa and sixth in the world), already having qualified via their world rankings, two more places will be up for grabs and on paper Namibia have a good chance of making it.

Namibia, which is ranked fifth in Africa and 14th in the world, will compete in Pool A against South Africa, Zimbabwe (fourth in Africa), Botswana (seventh) and Tanzania, which is unranked because they have not met the minimum threshold of international test matches required.

Pool B will be contested by Uganda, Malawi (third in Africa), Zambia (sixth),

Kenya (eighth) and Nigeria (unranked).

The top two teams in each pool will qualify for the semifinals, while the two finalists will qualify for the 2027 World Cup.

If South Africa and Uganda qualify for the final, a parallel set of play-off matches will be held on the final days, where the semifinal losers or the next highest ranked teams from the pools will square off in their own qualifier semifinals and final.

The Desert Jewels held their final training session on home soil over the weekend with a practise match against the national men’s team, the Desert Stallions, and national coach Julene Meyer said they are ready to go.

“Our preparations have actually been going very well. Our training camp started on Monday and we’ve been working incredibly hard. We have now concluded our preparations with a practise match against the Desert Stallions to see if all our combinations are running at full speed and if we’re well prepared and ready to go,” she said.

“We fly out on Tuesday and then we will have three warm-up matches against Malawi, Kenya and Uganda, starting on Wednesday, while our opening match at the tournament is against Botswana on Sunday,” she added.

Meyer said they are well prepared and confident of their chances of qualifying for the world cup.

“South Africa and Uganda qualify automatically because of their world rankings, while the other two teams will be determined by the rest of the eight nations there. I fancy our chances. Our preparation has been excellent, we’ve planned and prepared well, and I think the girls are ready to go,” she said.

Meyer said they specifically played against the Desert Stallions to prepare for their qualifying matches.

“The men’s game is a very aerial game and they’ve got tall players in the men’s game with a lot of Jack Russell-style type of feeders, similar to the East African style and that is why played against them. The Desert Stallions are also on their way to compete in the Spar men’s championships towards the end of the year so it’s also good exposure for them to get some game time against us,” she said.

Meyer asked for the nation’s continued support.

“Please continue to support us, keep us in your prayers, and we hope that we can bring back the qualification spot for world cup in Sydney,” she said.

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