Botswana Netball Association (BONA) intends to use the African Netball World Youth Cup Qualifiers in July as part of their preparations for the World cup . The qualifiers will be played in Gaborone, from 23rd to the 31st July 2016. The tournament carries three tickets that determine top three that qualifies to the prestigious Netball World Youth Cup (NWYC) 2017 slated for Gaborone.
BONA revealed that the technical team is expected to trim down the camp from 20 to 12 players that will compete at the Africa Netball World Youth Cup Qualifiers. Ten African countries are expected to compete for a place in the finals. In a statement released this week the netball association said ‘’ from the 29th April to the 6th of May, we will have a camp for about 30 players. From this camp the coaches will select the initial squad of 20 from which the final 12 players will be selected for the Africa Netball World Youth Cup Qualifiers to be held in Gaborone, Botswana from the 23rd to the 31st July 2016”.
Meanwhile, the tournament provides an opportunity to implement International Netball Federation (INF) latest updates of its rules of the game. The rules are effective from 1st January 2016 for international matches and member associations are obliged to implement the changes for domestic matches by September 2016.
The rules changes follow a thorough review by the netball mother body’s Rules Advisory Panel aiming to improve players delight of the game. The changes include reduction of the amount of whistle blown by umpires, quicker management of injuries and clearer options for controlling discipline.
Under the new regime, umpires will no longer have to use their whistle to indicate that a goal has been scored, or when the ball has gone out of court.
Clearer disciplinary control interprets that umpires now have a clearer, graded system available to manage poor discipline. Players can receive cautions and warnings, before being suspended from the game, or ordered off, depending on the severity of the offence. The rule continues to read ‘’ There is a change around the setting of a penalty, allowing for better flow and reducing the likelihood of gamesmanship. In the current game infringing players can be slow to retreat and set the penalty giving their team time to re-set their defence and potentially negate any advantage to the non-infringing team. In the new rules teams will no longer have to wait for the infringing player to stand down before they take a penalty pass.
