ALTHOUGH he left this country 6 years ago to settle in the United Kingdom, former men’s field hockey national team player Robert Muza still wears the Zimbabwean flag in his heart.
Muza, one of the founder members of the first black men’s field hockey side Eradicators and played for the national team in the late 1980s up to the early 1990s, is now based in Wales where he is involved in cricket administration on a voluntary basis.
He is also into acting.
Muza was back home in Zimbabwe a few weeks ago for a month-long holiday and got wind of the senior national netball side’s qualification for this year’s World Cup in Liverpool, England, and has offered to lend them a helping hand during their final preparations for this global showcase.
The Gems will come under the spotlight from July 12 to 22 when they make their maiden appearance at the Vitality Netball World Cup at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool where they will first compete in the group stages against the defending champions Australia, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka.
And Muza yesterday revealed that he would like the Gems to have a training camp in Wales a week or two ahead of this year’s Netball World Cup. “I’m looking at contacting the Zimbabwe Netball Association as I’m trying to arrange a (training) camp for the national team in Wales before the World Cup.
“I would also arrange for them to play some friendly matches in Wales before their participation at the World Cup . . . That’s my plan and I hope it will fit in their programme,” Muza told The Herald from his base in Newport, South Wales, yesterday.
He said he was doing this “as a patriotic Zimbabwean who always has my country at heart” despite having left this country in 2002 to resettle in the UK.
The Gems are currently away in Uganda where they are playing some friendly matches against that country’s senior team, which is also bound for the 2019 Netball World Cup.
They will also play a number of club sides as part of their final preparations for the global showcase in Liverpool in July.
They are also looking at tackling two of Africa’s top netball-playing countries South Africa and Malawi before heading out to the UK to play in this year’s World Cup.
But it is the latest intervention by Wales-based Muza and his offer to arrange a training camp for them in the European country ahead of the World Cup which should come as some sweet music into the ears of the Gems as they brace-up to make their maiden appearance in the Liverpool world netball jamboree.
The 2019 tournament will be played entirely at the M&S Arena in Liverpool with two courts to be in use at the venue throughout the competition.
The post Muza Offers Helping Hand appeared first on Zimbabwe Today.