Moorosi Tsiane
LESOTHO Netball Association (LNA) secretary general Boiketlo Hanyane says they are proud of their team despite its early exit from the just ended Africa Netball Cup in Cape Town.
Lesotho lost all its six matches and bowed out from the competition that started on 18 October 2019 and ended on Tuesday without a win.
Their heaviest defeat came from South Africa who beat them 110-10 before they also lost 98-24 to Uganda.
In its third match, Telang Machela’s side lost 22-79 to Zimbabwe with their fourth loss coming from Malawi who beat them 89-32. They lost their last match 32-68 to Zambia.
Hanyane said they had poor preparations but performed to the best of their ability against some of the continent’s heavyweights.
“They played teams that are way out of their league and also had better preparations than ours. They only trained for about two weeks. However, we are proud of the brave fight they put up,” Hanyane said.
“Besides that, the other teams have a huge pool of players and they run consistent leagues.
“Our situation is worsened by the fact that we also lack funds for the different processes. For instance, we would have wanted to go to Qacha’s Nek and Mokhotlong to scout for players to build the national team but we failed because there was no money. For these players to go to the training, some of the committee members had to use their own money and help them with transport.”
Hanyane however, said they still have some positives from the tournament including exposure for their young players.
“Our teams’ average age is 17 years, so we are building for next year’s African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Games the exposure we got from Cape Town will be handy next year.
“We are also trying to improve our standards and have been talking to some of the teams so that we can engage some of their coaches for exchange initiatives and they have asked us to write formal proposals and see how the process goes,” Hanyane said.
