News of eleventh hour pullout of South Africa and Malawi netball teams from next month’s All Africa Games championships in Mozambique has inspired the netball association of Tanzania, Chaneta. The pullout would in most cases work right in favour of the Tanzanian team should it perform well in the event. Malawi and South Africa are the continent’s highest ranking teams and their absence in Mozambique is likely to be used a springboard for the Tanzanian side to improve its ranking on the global IFNA chart. The two Southern African teams have opted out of the championship on the grounds of poor finance to meet participation cost. Tanzania is ranked 16 on the IFABN global ranking while South Africa and Malawi are fifth and sixth. According to www.netball.org, web site for the International Netball Federation (IFNA), South Africa feel their players have not recovered from physical demands of participating at the 2011 World Championship that ended in Singapore last month, while Malawi team is uncertain to secure funds in time for the event. The Tanzania netball association’s assistant secretary general Rose Mkisi said she is unaware of the two team’s pullout from the Games. She said this will be a blessing in disguise for the country to capitalize on improving the ranks on global and continental scale. She said the team will keep on training very hard so that they perform well at the competition. “Should that news turn out to be true, then it’s a blessing in disguise, but that can not make us to become complacent. We will keep on training so that we emerge the very best team at the games”, she said. Mkisi said the players are responding very well to the coaches’ instructions at the training camp. By Joseph Mchekadona, The Guardian