Top netball umpire and tutor Rebecca Dulanya has said local netball umpires will continue to be sidelined from prestigious competitions unless Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) and the umpires themselves show seriousness on training programmes.

She said this after local umpires missed out on the list of 23 officials that World Netball has appointed to officiate the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa from July 28 to August 8.

Malawian umpires are not qualified enough to officiate at the World Cup

The umpires’ list has six from New Zealand, five each from Australia and England, three from South Africa, two from Jamaica, one each from Wales and Scotland.

Malawi netball umpires have never been considered for such a prestigious event despite the country being among the top six netballing nations in the world.

Currently, only Dulanya and Whyte Mlilima are Malawi’s top umpires as they possess the Africa A netball umpiring licence which is closer to the the required standards.

Malawi also has six umpires with Africa C licence and, according to Dulanya, they risk having their licences revoked after failing an upgrading assesment that Africa Netball conducted on the sidelines of the recent Region 5 Games in Lilongwe.

Said Dulanya: “It is sad that despite the good reputation that Malawi has in global netball, we continue to miss out on the list of umpires for prestigious competitions such as the World Cup.

“As a country, we need to organise ourselves and show seriousness in umpire trainings with NAM playing a major role in supporting the initiatives, especially from the grassroots.”

She explained that individual effort on the part of umpires is also required because sometimes they need to invest to attain higher umpiring qualifications and show willingness to work without expecting allowances in some activities to acquire knowledge and gain experience.

Dulanya further said since she was trained by the former Malawi Queens coach the late Griffin Saenda in 2006, she has been upgrading by attending courses in other countries such as South Africa and Botswana until she became a Netball Africa A-grade umpire and umpires assessor.

She said: “The problem with netball in Malawi is that there is too much politics and we underrate our ability to up our game.

“We also hardly think of nurturing umpires from the grassroots. Umpiring requires energy and it is good to have strong umpires within the age range of 18 and 27.”

NAM vice-president Chimwemwe Bakali yesterday said they understand the challenges that Malawi umpires face to acquire good qualifications, but they are doing their best to produce umpires of high quality.

After announcing the panel that will officiate the World Cup, World Netball international officiating manager Christina Barrow was quoted on the world netball governing body’s website as having said that their appointments were based on the umpires “hard work, dedication and talent”.

She explained: “The Netball World Cup is one of the most prestigious events in the netball world class events calendar and it is always a privilege to be able to announce the officials that have been selected, which is a testament to their hard work, dedication and talent.” A total of 23 international technical officials have been selected, including six for the umpires appointments panel and 17 umpires.

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