Netball: South Africa to host Malawi in three-match series

Netball South Africa has announced it will be hosting a three-match series against Malawi in Rustenburg from 26 to 30 November.

South Africa have not played internationally since January 2020 when they were in England for a four-team tournament.

The Proteas struggled at the event losing to hosts England, New Zealand and Jamaica.

The two sides last played each other at the 2019 Africa Netball Cup in October with hosts South Africa winning that match on the way to being crowned continental champions.

South Africa coach Dorette Badenhorst has called up a provisional squad of 30 players for a three-day training camp from the 22nd of November in Sun City before a final team of 15 players is confirmed. 

As with sport around the world the netball fixture calendar has been affected by the global coronavirus pandemic.

"As a team, we have been challenged by a difficult year riddled with Covid-19, we are thankful for the opportunity to play an international game this year," Badenhorst said.

Playing against any African country is never easy, but this will be a great challenge for the players, and we are looking forward to building the team." 

Her views were echoed by Cecilia Molokwane, Netball South Africa president.

"2020 has been a very challenging year for Netball South Africa as we have had to reshuffle and revise our events calendar for the year," she said 

"Some of the things we had planned on doing have had to fall off due to coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown that came with it. 

"We were all concerned that we may not see our national team compete this year, I am delighted that we will have the SPAR Challenge series taking place this year against Malawi."

Because of the current lockdown regulations and restrictions, the series will be played in a bubble environment with no spectators allowed.

According to the International Netball Federation South Africa and Malawi are ranked fifth and sixth in the world respectively and are currently the top two on the continent.

This article originally appeared on BBC Sport

Photo: Getty Images