Netball in 2020: An unforgettable year

The year 2020 has been the most blasé for netball ever since 2015. It had the makings of a good year but in March it all went down the drain.

The Uganda Netball Federation(UNF) in particular was in for a big year as the East Africa Club championships were on the horizon, followed by the Africa World Netball Youth Cup Qualifiers that were set to take place in Kampala in May.

This has been a trying year but we never give up. It made us stronger but it also showed us that we need to have a long-term plan in case something came up. It acted as an eye-opener," UNF president Susan Anek.

Cancellation of events

The two tournaments fell through and the country went into a total lockdown. This left the Netball Youth Cup Qualifiers in doubt.

It was during the lockdown that the INF decided to use senior team rankings to determine who would play at the 2021 Netball World Youth Cup. Uganda luckily picked up the second spot as they were ranked 6th at the time.

Keeping players fit

The other thing the UNF had to deal with was the fact that players were going long periods without working out. So, they encouraged clubs to share some work out drills that teams handed their players to stay fit. The situation was expected to change and as soon as the go-ahead came through they needed players to be ready.

Sports Resumption

When the president gave a go-ahead for sports to resume but without fans, Netball hit a roadblock. The SOP's required that players and officials of each team got tested every two weeks. They not only had to do that every two weeks but the tests would cost up to sh250,000 each which meant it would be impossible to just resume.

Restart

In October the UNF started plotting a way to restart and in a mangers meeting proposed December as a possible start month.

Last month, the league organising committee decided December 5 as the league throw off which was met with resistance. Clubs failed to test their players which left the Federation no choice but to postpone the league.

Uganda was also able to secure a friendly with South Africa set for January 2021 but that too has been put on the back burner until the elections are completed.

"The friendly will not be there until because of the spike of the COVID the elections. We have been told the money will be available at the start of the quarter which is around March," Anek said.

The 2021 calendar will be busier than 2020 for sure. Lined up is the test series against South Africa, the Africa Netball Cup, and the World Netball Youth Cup.